{"id":63215,"date":"2026-03-01T19:28:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63215"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:28:09","slug":"paul-a-diggs-1890-1963-was-a-prominent-civic-leader-pharmacist-and-advocate-who-played-a-foundational-role-in-lakelands-black-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/01\/paul-a-diggs-1890-1963-was-a-prominent-civic-leader-pharmacist-and-advocate-who-played-a-foundational-role-in-lakelands-black-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul A. Diggs (1890\u20131963) was a prominent civic leader, pharmacist, and advocate who played a foundational role in Lakeland\u2019s Black community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paul A. Diggs (1890\u20131963) was a prominent civic leader, pharmacist, and advocate who played a foundational role in Lakeland\u2019s Black community during the mid-20th century.<\/sup> His legacy is so significant that in 1993, residents successfully petitioned to rename a large historic neighborhood in northwest Lakeland in his honor.<\/sup>+1<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Key Roles and Contributions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Diggs was often described as a “Renaissance man” due to the breadth of his involvement in the city:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Civic Leadership:<\/strong> He served as one of the area\u2019s first Black social workers and managed the Homes at Lake Ridge<\/strong> public housing complex. He was known for holding the community to high standards, even creating awards for the best-groomed yards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Public Safety:<\/strong> In 1943, he organized and served as captain of an all-Black auxiliary police force<\/strong> that patrolled the northwest quadrant. Notably, these officers were authorized to make arrests but performed their duties without carrying guns.+1<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Business Owner:<\/strong> He and his second wife, Elizabeth, operated Diggs Soda Shop<\/strong> (located inside Clark\u2019s Pharmacy), which became a central gathering spot for the community.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Youth & Education:<\/strong> He coached the first football and tennis teams at Washington Park High School and founded the area’s first Boy Scout troop for Black youth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Literary Work:<\/strong> During the Great Depression, he was a writer for the Federal Writers\u2019 Project<\/strong>, documenting Black life in Florida. He also wrote a regular column for the Florida Sentinel<\/em>, a statewide Black newspaper.+1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Background and Military Service<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Originally from Baltimore, Diggs was a highly educated professional for his era.<\/sup> He earned his pharmaceutical degree from Temple University<\/strong> and served in the U.S. Army during World War I<\/strong> (1918\u20131919).<\/sup> For his military merit, he was awarded the Order of St. Sava<\/strong> from Serbia.<\/sup>+1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Paul A. Diggs Neighborhood<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Today, the neighborhood bearing his name is one of Lakeland’s largest, bounded roughly by Memorial Boulevard to the south and North Florida Avenue to the east.<\/sup> It remains a focal point for cultural events, including the city’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/sup> Parade.+1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After more than 30 years in Lakeland, Diggs moved to Daytona Beach in 1958 to serve as the Dean of Men at Bethune-Cookman College<\/strong>, where he remained until his death.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Paul A. Diggs (1890\u20131963) was a prominent civic leader, pharmacist, and advocate who played a foundational role in Lakeland\u2019s Black community during the mid-20th century. His legacy is so significant… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63216,"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":"6","_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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL3BhdWwtYS1kaWdncy1jb3Jwb3JhbC53ZWJwP2ZpdD03NDYlMkM3MjQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQYXVsIEEuIERpZ2dzICgxODkwXHUyMDEzMTk2Mykgd2FzIGEgcHJvbWluZW50IGNpdmljIGxlYWRlciwgcGhhcm1hY2lzdCwgYW5kIGFkdm9jYXRlIHdobyBwbGF5ZWQgYSBmb3VuZGF0aW9uYWwgcm9sZSBpbiBMYWtlbGFuZFx1MjAxOXMgQmxhY2sgY29tbXVuaXR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.JbCj2JaY-1t7saxg7L4308cq12N3FDvTOi4qh0Wcm4MMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[13868,13866,13867],"class_list":["post-63215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-and-advocate-who-played-a-foundational-role-in-lakelands-black-community","tag-paul-a-diggs-1890-1963-was-a-prominent-civic-leader","tag-pharmacist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63215","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=63215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63217,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63215\/revisions\/63217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}