Saving and celebrating Newtown’s stories

A new project will offer a picture of the community’s history from 1914-2014.

There was a time when home remedies made from cobwebs, cotton balls and turpentine cured everything in Newtown. Back then, hospitals would turn their heads at black residents, but that didn’t stop the community from thriving.

Nearly 100 African American-owned businesses dotted Martin Luther King Jr. Way. And when some construction companies refused to build homes in Newtown, residents took matters into their own hands. Literally. They built their own homes, some of which still stand tall today.

Stories such as these are being compiled in the recently launched Newtown Conservation Historic District project. The city-funded initiative aims to piece together a picture of the community’s history from 1914-2014.

As Project Director Vickie Oldham puts it, the project looks at how Newtown residents worked, played and prayed.

The project received $50,000 from the City of Sarasota’s demolition fund, which goes toward projects that support historic preservation.

A team of volunteer researchers, ranging from ethnographers to anthropologists to architects, has partnered with local college students to complete the first phase of the project.

At its completion, there will be dozens of video-recorded oral histories and a historic map documenting historically significant properties in Newtown. Along with an interactive website, a walking tour and historic markers will guide people through the community.

It’s been a long time coming for the historically African-American community of Newtown. In the 1980s, former Sarasota mayor and City Commission member Fredd Atkins started playing with the idea of a project that would celebrate Newtown.

“The community will not only learn more about their history and their forefather’s history, they’ll also learn to respect the struggle and respect the opportunities they have now,” Atkins said. “A lot of the things going on today go contrary to this struggle. I think the project will help young people, and new people coming here, celebrate our history and our community.”

There’s also a sense of urgency. Young people are leaving Newtown for the same reason their ancestors first came: jobs.

“The community is consistently dying,” said Jetson Grimes, owner of Jetson’s Unisex Salon — don’t call it a barbershop — on North Osprey.

Grimes hopes the project will remind the greater community that Newton is also a part of Sarasota.

Oldham points to the Rosemary District, the city’s first documented black community.

Today, a plaque commemorates the area’s history, but development and outside investors have slowly pushed out the descendants of those first families.

“I hope that this project will reveal the past so that it can improve the quality of life for African-American residents as we move into the future,” Oldham said.

By Yadira Lopez

Newtown Honors its History

The Newtown Alive project revealed 15 markers that will mark historic locations throughout Newtown.

Vickie Oldham said she was grateful to find tissues tucked inside the podium at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex Feb. 18 during the unveiling of 15 historic markers that will be placed throughout Newtown as part of the Newtown Alive project.

Oldham, the project’s lead consultant, said she had a lot of people to thank for the progress of Newtown Alive, a project which has documented this history of Sarasota’s historically African American neighborhoods.

She thanked former Sarasota Mayor Fredd Atkins for beginning discussions about documenting the history of Sarasota’s African American community in 1985 a city commissioner. She thanked her team of researchers, the community for participating in the project and the city of Sarasota for funding its primary phases.

All in all, the event was characterized by gratitude. Speakers applauded the work of community members that came before them — activists, entrepreneurs and educators — who paved the way for a better future.

The contributions of those community members were honored as current members of the Newtown community pulled off thin pieces of cloth that covered reproductions of the plagues.

But even as Newtown celebrated its history, many community members looked to the future.

“(Our history) can’t just stay here,” former president of the Manasota branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Mark Jackson said. “It has to go to the young people … This is a living history.”

Vickie Oldham said she was grateful to find tissues tucked inside the podium at the Robert L. Taylor Community Complex Feb. 18 during the unveiling of 15 historic markers that will be placed throughout Newtown as part of the Newtown Alive project.

Oldham, the project’s lead consultant, said she had a lot of people to thank for the progress of Newtown Alive, a project which has documented this history of Sarasota’s historically African American neighborhoods.

She thanked former Sarasota Mayor Fredd Atkins for beginning discussions about documenting the history of Sarasota’s African American community in 1985 a city commissioner. She thanked her team of researchers, the community for participating in the project and the city of Sarasota for funding its primary phases.

All in all, the event was characterized by gratitude. Speakers applauded the work of community members that came before them — activists, entrepreneurs and educators — who paved the way for a better future.

The contributions of those community members were honored as current members of the Newtown community pulled off thin pieces of cloth that covered reproductions of the plagues.

But even as Newtown celebrated its history, many community members looked to the future.

“(Our history) can’t just stay here,” former president of the Manasota branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Mark Jackson said. “It has to go to the young people … This is a living history.”

by: Anna Brugmann

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

By 

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.

Keeping Newtown Alive

Pictured above: Fannie McDugle after her oral history interview with Vickie Oldham. Newtown Conservation Historic District Project strives to preserve and celebrate legendary African-American community in Sarasota.

By Amanda Smith

 

Black History Month is, above all, a celebration of the massive achievements by African Americans – and a recognition of the central role they played in U.S. history. The only catch with history is, if you don’t preserve it, there’s no celebrating it – or learning from its perils and successes.

That was exactly the pitch passionate Sarasota residents made to their local government, leading to a $50,000 city-funded initiative – The Newtown Conservation Historic District Project – dedicated to highlighting the history of an African- American enclave in Sarasota with beginnings dating back an entire century.

Newtown’s beginnings can be traced back to 1914, when it evolved out of the growth of Sarasota’s oldest African-American community, the Rosemary District. From the early years through the 1940s, the street now known as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Way was the flourishing heart of the then segregated Newtown, but decades of disinvestment and capital flight – along with a concentration of government subsidized housing – have devastated the area, causing the slow, painful demise of the once-thriving Newtown community.

Rather than watching its memories disappear right along with it, a team of mostly volunteers re executing a protective homage, conducting intricate research and personal interviews to piece together a comprehensive account of Newtown’s rich history. Members of the research team include an architectural historian, an ethno-historian, retired professor and cultural anthropologist Rosalind Howard, as well as Sarasota native, historian and project manager Vickie Oldham. The completed project will produce a report documenting Newtown’s 100 years of history and culture, oral history recordings from residents, a map of district boundaries and a walking tour of Newtown.

The passionate leader who many believe has been the project’s visionary and its fire, Oldham says next to mentoring young people, this is the most important work of her career. “This is truly my legacy,” she says. “Up until now, Newtown’s history has only been available in fragments – a local art gallery had some history, you could learn a little at a cultural resource center – there’s really no single repository of primary and secondary source accounts in one cohesive document – until now. It’s huge and it’s history in the making. I’m a native and a lover of history, and now I get to use every communications tool available to share the history of Newtown in a project that will long outlive me.” With big plans to create monuments, a website and a mobile app that can be used to hear oral accounts of Newtown seniors Oldham interviewed, she says the ultimate goal of the The Newtown Conservation Historic District Project is to share the strong values of courage, determination, self-sufficiency and commitment to community demonstrated by the residents of a segregated section of Sarasota without access to most of the resources of the larger city. “I interviewed about 40 Newtown residents and pioneers, and it was transformative to see how close-knit they all were,” Oldham reveals. “I had long-known Newtown operated under a village concept in order to make the best use of the limited resource access they had, but I never fully understood the potency of their treasured values. Experiencing the histor ymyself, sitting within inches of
the people who lived it, taught me the unrivaled power of individual personal stories to demonstrate the sacrifice, strength and spirit required to live for something greater than oneself. Honestly, it made me want to be a better person.” Retired University of Central Florida professor and cultural anthropologist Rosalind Howard explains that the pride Newtown’s older generation feels in sharing their stories stems from how demonstrative they are in revealing Newtown’s strong moral values and ethics to present-day Americans. “As I compile the interviews collected by Vickie, the common theme is the pride interviewees feel in sharing their stories of enduring the struggles of segregation, courageously starting their own businesses to build a self-sufficient community, and fearlessly fighting for civil rights,” Howard says.

“Many of them actually admit to desiring a return of those village values of community cohesion, strong religious values, shared ideologies and a work ethic and motivation sourced from an emotional desire to honor the unity of Newtown.” From former community hairdressers, to Newtown migrants like the ever-outspoken Jesse Johnson who, at his mother’s insistence, left Georgia for Sarasota to avoid being lynched, citizens of Newtown remember feeling a strong sense of unified identity and the power to move mountains together.

“It was definitely an ‘us against the world’ mentality – and that’s because it was,” Howard states. “They were fighting for their rights, they were fighting just to survive. Banding together like that has a powerful effect on the psyche and allows for people to do tremendous things.” That hard work and dedication – and its resulting accomplishments – are exactly what Howard sees as the greater message the Newtown Conservation Historic Project has a chance to impart. “Overwhelmingly, my assessment of the interviews is that participants want to convey the presence and the power of communal values and morality,” Howard says. “In contemporary society, there is a very prevalent conception of African-Americans as lazy, jobless welfare abusers with no work ethic or motivation. By documenting the ingenuity and achievements of enclaves like Newtown – feats accomplished by intrinsic motivation, pride and political involvement – we as a country are forced to rewrite the story.” Howard doesn’t expect a Newtown revival, but rather a reconstruction of the perception. “This idea that there is a history that has been untold may help facilitate a subtle shift in the perceived values of African Americans as a whole,” Howard hopes. “It will not only change how others see us, and how the history books see us, but perhaps it will change how we see ourselves.”

Sarasota’s Newtown Conservation Historic Project should be completed by Summer 2016. Find them on Facebook at Newtown Conservation Historic District and follow them on Twitter @newtown_dream.

Riverview’s First African American Commencement Speaker

In the 1970s Walter Reid, Jr presented a farewell to his high school by becoming the first African American to give the graduating speech to the then recently integrated Riverview High School. Reid’s presentation was so dynamic the he received a standing ovation from the crowd in attendance, and the media coverage the next day filled with accolades.

In his years at the integrated Riverview High School, he was the only African American that was a member of the National Honor Society, and graduated with High Honors.