{"id":41160,"date":"2024-01-20T18:44:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=41160"},"modified":"2024-01-20T18:44:21","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T23:44:21","slug":"lakelands-lost-community-moorehead-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/01\/20\/lakelands-lost-community-moorehead-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland&#8217;s Lost Community &#8211; Moorehead Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In&nbsp;1883&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;nearly two years before the City of Lakeland became incorporated as \u201cLakeland\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 this pivotal growing neighborhood was full of people who&nbsp;moved to the south&nbsp;to either&nbsp;work on the railroad, in the&nbsp;phosphate mines, or the&nbsp;orange groves&nbsp;of a&nbsp;pre-Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RP Funding Center\u00a0today used to be home to an\u00a0African American community created by freedmen\u00a0and\u00a0women\u00a0from up north. Moorehead community<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"992\" height=\"754\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ell6cbHXIAAUm32.jpeg?resize=992%2C754&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41162\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ell6cbHXIAAUm32.jpeg?w=992&amp;ssl=1 992w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ell6cbHXIAAUm32.jpeg?resize=300%2C228&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ell6cbHXIAAUm32.jpeg?resize=768%2C584&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moorehead community west of downtown Lakeland began in the 1880s when Blacks moved to work on the railroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was named after the Rev. H.R. Moorehead. According to the History Center, the reverend was a champion for the fair and equal treatment of Lakeland\u2019s Black citizens until he died in 1926.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First Baptist Institutional Church was the first Black church in Lakeland. It was\u00a0established as Saint John Baptist Church in 1884 in Moorehead. The church was also home to Moorehead School. As the school grew, it began to have its separate building. Both buildings were burned down several times. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Twitter aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"154d76d1-756e-45a9-8260-b92910cd7c7a\" data-embed-type=\"Twitter \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-40eb2e55f5b6dd1b53ec3c10f46b9557\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-twitter ose-uid-9f66e2ab96159d152926439771ce4d9e ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:450px; max-height:450px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\"><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"600\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My Aunt Louella,Working At The Bar Her And Her Husband Owned in Lakeland, Fl, During The Segregation Era<br><br>When Lakeland,FL Was Segregated, The Black People Came Together And Created A Safe-Haven Area Called \u201cMorehead\u201d (Thread)?? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NsBJxtCYh7\">pic.twitter.com\/NsBJxtCYh7<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Northstar.TV? (@Northstartv1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Northstartv1\/status\/1322221498271191040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 30, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe imagine the Klan did it but there\u2019s no proof of that,\u201d Moorhead historian LaFrancine Burton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The congregation moved to what is now Martin Luther King Avenue in 1922, and the name changed to First Baptist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 35-acre community was annexed by the city of Lakeland and demolished in 1971 through eminent domain to build what is now the RP Funding Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Here are some historical facts about&nbsp;the <strong>Moorehead community<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The community&nbsp;built one of the first churches&nbsp;to ever exist in the Lakeland area,&nbsp;St. John\u2019s Baptist Church.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By the late 1880s,&nbsp;the first school opened&nbsp;in Moorehead, called the Lakeland Colored School \u2014 which paved the way for secondary all-Black schools to exist like&nbsp;Rochelle High School&nbsp;and&nbsp;Washington Park High School. Additionally, there was also a two-story school in the community that was partially funded by the city in 1914. Under \u201cmysterious circumstances,\u201d it burned down and was&nbsp;replaced by a one-story structure&nbsp;that was then closed in 1960. The students were then transferred to&nbsp;what is now Lincoln Avenue Academy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Within the community, you could find\u00a0a juke joint\u00a0owned by\u00a0Elijah \u201cShanghai\u201d Jackson. The juke joint\u00a0sold sandwiches, soda, and beer, but,\u00a0if you paid the right price\u00a0you could also\u00a0purchase liquor,\u00a0even though it was banned in Polk County at the time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 1938, the Moorehead neighborhood&nbsp;made national news&nbsp;and was&nbsp;featured in Life Magazine&nbsp;when a mob of 200 KKK members paraded through the neighborhood.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the&nbsp;1970s, the city decided to use the neighborhood as the site for&nbsp;a new civic center&nbsp;+&nbsp;purchased 131 homes&nbsp;and vacant houses for&nbsp;$2,000-$10,000&nbsp;per property \u2014&nbsp;an act that ended up&nbsp;displacing over 122 families&nbsp;within the community<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This uprooted people from their family homes and relocated them to other neighborhoods&nbsp;in Lakeland such as Westlake and Washington Park Apartments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe older folks when they were working was very low and the social security that they were getting was minimal,\u201d Burton said.&nbsp;\u201cNo one wanted to move because it was a community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of the elders died within a few years after moving out of Moorehead.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEverybody was saying that they were heartbroken because they had to move out of Moorehead,\u201d Burton said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Burton, 73, said moving caused people to have more financial hardships.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEven though they were relocated to better homes than what they had in Moorehead, they ended up with mortgages and they never had a mortgage before. And that was an adjustment for them,\u201d Burton said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Burton\u2019s mother grew up in Moorehead and her father owned a juke joint called Black &amp; Tan. Burton grew up in Crescent Heights, formerly known as\u00a0Robinson\u2019s Quarters, on\u00a0her paternal grandfather\u2019s land which has been in the family for 100 years. She said it would be traumatic for Burton to experience the same situation that the community of Moorehead faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI get all these calls about selling, and I won\u2019t sell it. He worked too hard for it,\u201d said Burton. \u201cI sympathize with the people from Moorehead.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Moorehead was&nbsp;one of the first neighborhoods in Lakeland&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;a thriving and vibrant community&nbsp;\u2014 there is&nbsp;still so much more to be recorded about its existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Near the RP Funding Center, passersby&nbsp;can find a plaque with a brief history&nbsp;of the Moorehead community.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Photo656850.jpg?resize=800%2C601&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Photo656850.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Photo656850.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Photo656850.jpg?resize=768%2C577&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Inscription<\/strong>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In the early 1880&#8217;s one of Lakeland&#8217;s first settlements developed on these 35 acres. Railroad laborers working on the Henry B. Plant railroad lines and other African-Americans moved here to begin construction in 1882 on a railroad line from Tampa eastward through Lakeland to Bartow junction. In 1884, Lakeland&#8217;s first African-American Church, St. John&#8217;s Baptist, was founded and the city&#8217;s first Black school was established, soon thereafter. Rev. H.R. Morehead (?-1916) became pastor of the St. John&#8217;s Church in 1906. He was an esteemed champion for the rights of his people and it is believed that the Moorehead Community was named in his honor. This neighborhood experienced rapid growth of homes, churches and businesses that included Lakeland&#8217;s first African-American physician, Dr. David Simpson (1870 &#8211; 1955). Thousands of African-Americans lived in Moorehead at one time or another until 1971 when they city of Lakeland acquired this land in order to build The Lakeland Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In&nbsp;1883&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;nearly two years before the City of Lakeland became incorporated as \u201cLakeland\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 this pivotal growing neighborhood was full of people who&nbsp;moved to the south&nbsp;to either&nbsp;work on the railroad, in the&nbsp;phosphate&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[7331],"class_list":["post-41160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-lakelands-lost-community-moorehead-community"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41163,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41160\/revisions\/41163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}