Category: History

Founded in 2005 by Vickie Oldham, the Looking for Angola initiative seeks to uncover and document the history of a previously overlooked early Black settlement in the region. The project combines archaeological research with community storytelling to reconstruct this lost chapter of Florida’s past.

A key site tied to this history is Manatee Mineral Spring Park in Bradenton, recognized as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Through ongoing research and public education, the initiative continues to deepen understanding of early freedom-seeking communities in the area.

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Newtown Conservation Historic District team is awarded the “community service” award at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Breakfast on January 19, 2016. 

Public housing development “Janie’s Gardens Phase III” opens with 72 units in 2016.

In 2015, the Newtown Conservation Historic District Project kicks off with a team of experts selected to document Newtown’s 100-year history in a research report, through oral histories and an analysis of historic resources. The team consists of  volunteer researchers from ASALH and the community; and Project Director Vickie Oldham, Cultural Anthropologist Dr. Rosalyn Howard, Architectural historian Dave Baber, Sarasota architect Chris Wenzel and social media strategist and photographer Kacey Troupe.

“A Whitepaper 2009: Sarasota’s Newtown Healthcare Iconoclasm” is published by James E. McCloud condemning the appalling state of healthcare for African Americans in Sarasota.

Public housing development “Janie’s Gardens Phase I” opens with 86 units in 2009.

In 2009

In 2008, Carolyn Mason was elected as the first African American female elected to serve on the Sarasota County Board of Commissioners.

In 2005, the documentary “Condemned” illuminated racial disparities of public housing living conditions in Sarasota.

The EPA designated the former city “dump” site in Newtown as a “Brownfield” in 2004.

In 2002, Overtown was designated as “the first black community” in Sarasota, was entered on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.

Overtown stakeholders reached a consensus to seek Historic District designation in 2001.

In the year 2000, Trinity Christian Fellowship Center Incorporated was established on July 9 by Rev. R. Vincent Smith, III.

In 1999, the Abundant Life Christian Center was established by Pastor Kelvin Lumpkin with 11 members.

The Sarasota County Health Department eliminated home visits in 1995.

In 1994, the celery fields were purchased by Sarasota County and converted into a tourist destination.

In 1984, Newtown Little League became part of Little League International and opened up play the first weekend in April with eight teams. The founder and President was Fredd Atkins; the Vice President was Ricky Thomas and the Head Coach of Officials was Ervin Crummer.

Six Florida community -based organizations (C.B.O.s), including Newtown’s Union of Concerned Parents were wrongly accused of crimes by the FBI in 1981. 

In 1978, public housing development “McCown Towers” opens with 175 units

In 1973, the Union of Concerned Parents is formed.

In the year 1971, the public housing development “Janie Poe” opens with 128 units and “Cohen Way” opens with 72 units.

In 1971 the Henry L. Porter Evangelistic Association, Inc. was established

In the year 1970, Georgia Thomas was congratulated for 25 years of service as a nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. She began working at the hospital in 1945 when it integrated its staff.

In 1968

In 1967 the Sarasota County schools are integrated.

During the year 1965, Roland Rogers took the position of Coordinator of Community Relations for the Sarasota County School Board.

A federal lawsuit was filed when Sarasota County schools refused to desegregate in 1961.

The public housing development “Bertha Mitchell” opens with 100 units in 1960.

In the year of 1960, Newtown was now home to about 6% of Sarasota County’s population (around 7,000 people)

Between the 1960s and 1970s, Sarasota County Health Department ended its “whites only” policy.  

On the year 1950, A public housing development called “The Courts” opens with 100 units.

In the year 1950, Under the “Slum Clearance Program” the city began removing housing stock in the Overtown area

In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in the modern 20th century era to play on a major league team, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In 1940, he first public housing development in Newtown opened with 60 units.

In the year of 1939, The T.B. Health Unit was organized to combat the spread of tuberculosis.

In 1930, Helen R. Payne opens the Johnson Camp celery farm on Fruitville Road.

In 1930, Newtown Day Nursery opened and was later renamed the Helen R. Payne Center.  

During the 1930s and 40s, Sarasota accelerates the development of Newtown with the construction of a housing project along Orange Avenue and increased housing standards in the Overtown area.

In 1926, The Colson Hotel opened to accommodate African American residents and travelers.

In the year of 1923, The Knights of Pythias Hall School celebrated its first graduating class. The staff included Principal Emma Edwina Booker and teachers Aravia Benton Johnson, Lucinda Wiggins and Mayme Williams Faulk. Quessie M. Hall was in the first graduating class.

During the mid-1920s, Newtown Heights opens.

Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917.

In the year of 1914, Newtown was established. The neighborhood was platted by C.N. Thompson and son on April 20. The subdivision contained 240 lots on forty acres designated “exclusively for colored people”.

In 1910, Josie Washington opened the first kindergarten in her home. Lucinda Wiggins also started a home-based school.  

 In 1885 Colson worked with Robert E. Paulson to survey and plat the original town of Sarasota for the Florida Mortgage and Investment Company.

Under the direction of then Gen. Andrew Jackson, the U.S. Navy attacks Prospect Bluff Fort. A cannon ball strikes the fort’s stockpile of ammunition causing an explosion that instantly kills about 270 of 320 inhabitants. Some survivors, including the fort’s Black commandant Garcon, were executed. Displaced Blacks moved south and throughout Florida.

During the Patriots War, more Blacks ally with the British. Their forces are defeated. In 1815, the British leave a fort at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River to Blacks where they reside and create villages nearby with Native American allies. The place becomes known as Negro Fort.

The War of 1812 begins. In West Florida, British forces enlist both Blacks and Native Americans. The ensuing fight in the region becomes known as the Patriots War. Sarrazota (also known as Angola) existed in the Tampa Bay-Sarasota-Manatee area. Florida was a sovereign territory of Spain. Free people of color, formerly enslaved Africans (some were called Black Seminoles and Seminole Indians) lived along the Manatee River in a farming community that stretched into Sarasota.