Newtown Alive Vickie Oldham, Newtown Alive

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.

The memory of Sarasota Mayor Willie
Charles Shaw is razor sharp.
 He was reared in “Black
Bottom,” a swampy land in Newtown near Maple, Palmadelia and Goodrich Avenues.
There were no streetlights or curbside mail delivery. Overtown had its own
neighborhood with the same name because of its rich black soil. Shaw can
quickly rattle off the locations of community landmarks, dirt paths, swimming
holes, citrus trees and bus routes; and the names of neighbors. Newtown’s dusty
roads were paved in 1968, but the first paved streets followed the route of the
city transit bus. His grandmother and family members owned land along Orange
Avenue and 31st Street. When there was a death in the neighborhood, Mrs.
Herring, Fannie McDugle, and Mrs. James formed an unofficial neighborhood
association with Mrs. Viola Sanders at the helm. The women collected food and
flowers for grieving families. Shaw’s mother sewed a heart or a ribbon on the
right sleeve of the bereaved.
 
The retired letter carrier attended
the Booker schools with teachers Barbara Wiggins, Mrs. McGreen, Prevell Carner
Barber, Aravia Bennet Johnson, Foster Paulk, Esther Dailey, Coach Dailey, Janie
Poe, and Turner Covington. “I would have to say that the entire learning
experience at Booker groomed me into a leader. We were taught that you always
had to be better, do better. You had to.”  
 
Shaw was among the African American
students who traveled on a bus across the Skyway Bridge to attend Gibbs Junior
College. He served in the U.S. Air Force, then became a letter carrier
following in the footsteps of Jerome Stephens, the first African American in
Sarasota hired by the postal service.   

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.

As an African American public health
nurse, the late Gwendolyn Atkins spent a lifetime healing bruises in the
community.
For nearly three decades, retired
nurse Gwen Atkins walked door to door in Newtown neighborhoods, public housing
areas and in migrant camps teaching young mothers about childcare, treating
childhood diseases, monitoring the health of aging residents and making sure
seasonal workers received medical services. She set up a makeshift clinic in
the garage of Stephens Funeral Home. “We’d treat impetigo and ring worms. She
became extended family members of their patients.
The line between work and play often
blurred. Nursing and being on call, accessible and always available was a way
of life. “If I had to do it all over again, I would choose public health
nursing and I would choose serving my community. That’s what I love more than
anything else,” Atkins said.

Estella Moore-Thomas owned Moore's Grocers when Black residents couldn’t shop at Publix and Winn Dixie. The Newtown business that still bears the family’s name supplied the community with groceries and fresh produce. Before Moore’s, Thomas rented a store in the building once occupied by Eddy’s Fruit Stand. Harriet D. Moore, her daughter, helped operate the store.  “We were one of the few stores that gave credit to people,” Harriet chimed.
 
Moore grew up in Sidell, Florida located 50 miles east of Sarasota in a turpentine camp. The home remedies used to treat illnesses consisted of turpentine, Epsom salt, castor oil and cobwebs. “When I came here, we didn’t have electricity. I opened the door of the refrigerator and the lamp fell and broke. Right there, just cut it to the bone. They filled it up with cobwebs. No stitches or nothing. No doctors, but I lived through it.”
 
The elder Moore didn't finish high school because the responsibility of helping at home as a teenager stood in the way, but she made sure her children received the best education. Harriet earned a doctorate degree and was the Sarasota County School district's Director of Innovation and Equity. “The way that it used to be, I miss rallying around people who didn’t have and making sure that nobody went hungry around here.”

The late Elder Willie Mayes was
proud of the family church that began in his parent’s home with six members. He
began pastoring New Zion Primitive Baptist Church in 1984 and operated a cement
finishing business for 45 years.
 The company is among the
oldest Black owned enterprises in Sarasota. At age 14, he stopped attending
school to help his family make ends meet financially. Mayes earned meager wages
doing farm work in Fruitville near where the family lived. Children in the
settlement of approximately 50 residents attended school in a little church. The
people walked a quarter of a mile to pump water for daily use. In 1944, the
family moved to Newtown where Mango Avenue is situated between Highway 301 and
the railroad tracks near the city dump. “The smoke bothered us for years. We
stayed in the house most of the time to escape that smoke.,” Mayes said. His
sister Rosa Lee Thomas believes their neighbors on Mango died as a result of
the fumes. She keeps a record of their names as a memorial. An unforgettable
moment in Thomas’ life was being chosen the 10th grade attendant of Miss Booker
High School with another attendant Willie Mae (Blake) Sheffield.