Vickie Speaks with Mary Alice Simmons and Sheila Sanders About Their Lifelong Activism Newtown Alive

At age eight, Mary’s family moved to
unit #10 in a public housing complex in Newtown. The differences between
conditions in Overtown where they lived before, and the new complex were like
night and day.
 The new apartment had a
bathroom, electricity, a yard with grass, and sidewalks. Before that, their
shotgun house had no running water. They pumped water for bathing, washing
dishes and laundry.  There were three tubs to wash, rinse garments, and
rinse again. Before Clorox, a boil pot whitened clothes. An outhouse 15 feet
from the house was used. A portable oil stove was the major kitchen appliance
and kerosene lamps provided light.  An imaginary boundary line kept
community children from veering past 10th Street. Simmons only ventured across
the line to grocery shop with her grandmother. “We would walk down Main Street
and smell peanuts in the five-and-dime store. I remember asking, ‘Granny can I
have an ice cream cone.’ She said, ‘sit here.’ I sat on the curb. I never
forgot the place, Oleander’s. Granny went in, got it, and brought it outside. I
looked at her, looked at the cone, looked at the people sitting inside. But you
didn’t ask adults questions. You just did as you were told.”
Sheila Sanders has a sweet smile but
don’t mistake it for weakness. She organized a boycott of the Sarasota Federal
Bank as a third grader at Booker Elementary School. At that time, her class
learned money management by filling out savings deposit slips for their
pennies, dimes and nickels, but the students could not take tours of the bank
as children from other schools did. Sanders persuaded her classmates to send
deposits to Palmer Bank where they could tour.  Her actions foreshadowed
future activism. The teenager proactively participated in the NAACP
accompanying leaders John Rivers and Maxine Mays to local and state meetings. In
high school, Sanders learned about the political process by reviewing the agenda
of school board meetings and attended the meetings by taking the city bus.
“Some things won’t be said just because you’re sitting there.” 
Sanders, William “Flick” Jackson and
John Rivers joined Dr. Edward E. James II as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against
the City of Sarasota. They successfully pushed for single member district
voting that opened the way for African American representation on the Sarasota
City Commission.