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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.
The building that housed Diggs Soda Shop has long since been demolished, but Diggs is honored by the neighborhood’s name and by the people who continue to come together to commemorate Lakeland’s Black community’s enduring strength and legacy.
Who was Paul A. Diggs
Diggs’ contributions went beyond the Colonial Ice Cream, sundries, food items, and dry goods offered in his shop. He was an educator, coach, and pharmacist, who worked tirelessly to improve his community. In 1993, residents successfully petitioned to rename the neighborhood, previously known as Martin Luther King, in his honor.
Originally from Baltimore, Diggs earned his undergraduate degree from Storer College in Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1912. He attended the prestigious, historically Black (HBCU) Howard University in 1913, and earned his pharmaceutical degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. Diggs returned to Baltimore after graduation, where he operated Diggs Modern Pharmacy.
During World War I, Diggs was drafted into the racially segregated U.S. Army. He served from February 1918 to March 1919 in the 52nd Company of the 13th Battalion, 153 Depot Brigade. He received the order of St. Sava from Serbia for military merit.
After the end of war, Diggs returned to pharmacy, making his way to Gate City Drug Store in Atlanta in 1922. He arrived in Lakeland in the mid-1920s.
Impact in Lakeland
When Washington Park High School opened in 1928, Diggs coached the first football and tennis teams. Later, he helped organize the school library. He founded the first Boy Scout troop for Black youth in the area and fundraised for youth sports and social events. Each year, he ensured children in his neighborhood received Christmas gifts.
In 2016, John Anthony, a retired Washington, D.C., public school administrator, told LkldNow that Diggs was one of the reasons he became an educator.
“He took Boy Scouts that went on to be coaches and teachers,” said Anthony, who died in 2017 at 88. “He is one of several people who contributed immensely to the African-American community.”
Diggs managed the Homes at Lake Ridge. Despite pushback, he held residents to high standards, enforcing housing rules and advocating for a midnight curfew for Black women. He created awards for residents with the best-groomed yards and cleanest apartments.
Anthony said that Diggs spoke before the Lakeland City Commission regularly. He didn’t want to see his community taken advantage of with rental fees, said Anthony.
A lasting legacy
Diggs organized and served as captain of an all-Black auxiliary police force that patrolled the northwest quadrant without guns. He was chairman of the Negro March of Dimes fund campaign and involved in many civic, business, and fraternal organizations, including the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Lakeland Chamber of Commerce Interracial Council, National Urban League, United Negro College Fund, and Colored Veterans of World War I.
In 1929, Diggs married Louise W. Rochelle, daughter of William A. Rochelle, the principal of Washington Park High School, which was later renamed in his honor.
Louise was an educator and served as principal of Rochelle Elementary School. She passed away in 1950. Paul later married his second wife, Elizabeth, with whom he operated Diggs Soda Shop.
After living in Lakeland for more than three decades, Diggs moved to Daytona Beach. He took a position at Bethune-Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University, but his legacy in Lakeland continues to impact the city today.
Newspaper mentions of Diggs over the years — click on any image to start a slideshow:
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