Lakeland was settled in 1890. By 1903 it was an established African American community with a public school, First Baptist Church of Lakeland and Embry African Methodist Episcopal Church. Two Rosenwald schools followed, including Lakeland High School in 1928. Through cooperation with other African American communities along U.S. Route 1, Lakeland thrived, despite segregation. Lakeland grew until the 1970s when an urban renewal project displaced two-thirds of the residents.