Parramore Series

Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood has a rich history of music and art. So far, it’s perhaps best known as the home of a performance hall that drew many famous black musicians in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

Underneath an overpass on South Parramore Avenue the same people play checkers, week in and week out. A breeze passes through, an escape from the Florida heat. Most of the men have been playing here for decades. Today we look at Checker Park, where a poverty-stricken community hangs out to get lost in a good game of checkers.

When the city of Orlando launched a study into the historic black Parramore neighborhood, it got back some alarming statistics. One of them was Parramore’s jobless rate – nearly 24 percent. Much has changed since last year, when that number surfaced in a comprehensive plan for the neighborhood.

The HIV prevention nonprofit Hope and Help spent an afternoon giving out some 3,000 condoms to residents in Parramore.

For more than two decades, kids in Orlando’s Tangelo Park neighborhood have been educated through a program that begins at age two and continues through college. It's funded by hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen. And now Rosen’s starting a new program in Parramore.