Since the 1920s, the Paul A. Diggs neighborhood has been central to Lakeland’s Black community. It’s one of only three in the city named after a person. Within the neighborhood, Jackson Park is a focal point for events like the city’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade and the Black History Festival.
But years before the park became the gathering place it is today, it was the site of Diggs Soda Shop, operated by Paul A. Diggs and his wife, Elizabeth. The shop, within Clark’s Pharmacy, was on North Dakota Avenue, later renamed Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Diggs was a civic leader, business owner, and one of Lakeland’s first Black social workers. He made an lasting impact on the young people in his community. Beyond Lakeland, he worked alongside Zora Neale Hurston, documenting Florida communities for the Federal Writers Project during the 1930s, and wrote a regular column for a statewide Black newspaper called the Florida Sentinel in the 1940s…