A Place We Call Home: Historic Markers Tell Story of Newtown History

By Linda Carson

Posted by abc7 MySuncoast

A project called “Newtown Alive” is now being put in place throughout Newtown. It guides you through Newtown’s history and introduces you to the trail blazers, the men and women who make Newtown a great place to call home.

Fifteen large colorful signs with pictures are being installed in Newtown marking a historic trail around the community. Its an important project in Sarasota’s African-American community. .

“It is important because we as African Americans in Sarasota and this region need to be recognized for our contributions,” says Fredd Atkins, Sarasota’s first African-American mayor. “But also to give our young people the drive and the ability to seek out greater opportunities for themselves. ”

” The markers are being placed at strategic historic locations,” says Atkins. “They will be marked at a church , Booker High School, Robert L. Taylor Community Center, businesses and historical homes.”

They will tell how Newtown moved from segregation to integration and they will tell about the people and places important to that journey.

Ninety-nine year-old Glossie Atkins witnessed it. She moved here in the 1940s and wants people to know what it was like in those days.

“I would love for them to know that Newtown has changed a lot .It’s better than it was when I came here because when I came here we had to ride in the back of the bus, now we can ride anywhere we want to.”

But after all these years, the disrespect still hurts. “We couldn’t go in the cafes we had to go in the back of the cafes, but now we can go in the front.”

 

Organizers are hoping not only Newtown residents, but people from all over Sarasota will read the markers and follow the trail.

“We hope the young people in our community will cherish the opportunity to remember and learn and see some of the pictures of their parents in their period and time,” says Atkins.

And they’re hoping the trail will draw business to Newtown.

Historic Markers Tell Story of Newtown History

By Linda Carson

Posted by abc7 MySuncoast

A project called “Newtown Alive” is now being put in place It guides you thru Newtown’s history and introduces you to the trail blazers, the men and women who make Newtown “a great place to call home”.

15 large colorful signs with pictures are being installed in Newtown, marking a historic trail around the community.

An important project in Sarasota’s African American community. .

Fredd Atkins, Sarasota’s first African American Mayor says, “It is important because we as African Americans in Sarasota and this region need to be recognized for our contributions but also to give our young people the drive and the ability to seek out greater opportunities for themselves. ”

Atkins says, ” The markers are being placed at strategic historic locations. They will be marked at a church , Booker High School, Robert L. Taylor Community Center, businesses and history homes.”

They’ll tell how Newtown moved from segregation to integration, and they’ll tell about the people and places important to that journey.

99 year old Glossie Atkins witnessed it. She moved here in the 1940s. She wants people to know what it was like in those days..

“I would love for them to know that Newtown has changed a lot .It’s better than it was when I came here because when I came here we had to ride in the back of the bus, now we can ride anywhere we want to.”

But after all these years, the disrespect still hurts. “We couldn’t go in the cafes we had to go in the back of the cafes, but now we can go in the front.”

Organizers are hoping not only Newtown residents, but people from all over Sarasota will read the markers and follow the trail.

Fredd Atkins says, “But first, we hope the young people in our community will cherish the opportunity to remember and learn and see some of the pictures of their parents in their period and time ”

And they’re hoping the trail will draw business to Newtown.

Historic markers celebrate the men and women who championed community’s residents, schools and businesses

By Elizabeth Djinis

Posted by the Heraldtribune

SARASOTA — One by one, Vickie Oldham called up members of the Newtown community from the crowd in the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex on Saturday morning, urging them to stand by the historical marker commemorating their impact.

Here were members of the community who had provided some of the area’s first medical services, served in the first education institutions, worked on celery farms or as domestics to make a living. They stood by their markers, the bright orange edges of the poster reproductions peeking out from the plastic wrap. And then, Oldham said the magic phrase: it was time to unveil them.

The rectangular markers were revealed, emblazoned with titles such as “Segregation, Desegregation and Integration” and “Military Service of Newtown Men and Women.” More than 200 people lingered around the markers, looking at their archival photography and detailed descriptions of the community’s history.

“If we’re going to have an unveiling, this is the way to do it,” said Trevor Harvey, president of the Sarasota County NAACP.

The 15 markers will be installed in Newtown from late this month to early March, and will be placed outside prominent community locations such as Booker High School and the city’s Newtown-North Sarasota Redevelopment Office. In March, Oldham hopes to have a one-day event with trolley tours of the markers; a date has not been announced.

City and Sarasota County officials dotted the audience and Mayor Willie Shaw introduced each of the speakers as master of ceremonies. When former mayor Fredd Atkins, running for City Commission, took the podium, he noted that the markers were a long time coming.

“Over these last 35 years, our community has pulled this off, moment by moment, day by day, struggle through struggle,” Atkins said. “…We are sitting in front of those visions from the Saturday morning meetings. This historic trail is here.”

Almost all of the speakers urged the young people in the audience to remember and listen to the history being told, because it is their legacy to repeat it.

“If we don’t engage young people, then the history will die with the people in this room,” Harvey said.

Before the unveiling, 53-year-old Elizabeth Rivers Williams said just how much the markers had taught her about her own family members. Her grandfather, John Henry Rivers, had a history of activism in the Newtown community and paved the way for black elected officials like Shaw and Atkins. But talking with Oldham made her realize that Rivers had also been involved with the NAACP cars bringing blacks to the then-segregated Lido Beach in the 1950s.

“It makes me feel proud,” Rivers Williams said. “He was a very special man.”

When she saw the markers, she paused, saying Oldham “needs to pat herself on the back.”