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SARASOTA – Last week, we left off with the beginning of segregation in schools, a drawn-out process that took several years to complete due to push back by public officials, who closed entire schools in an effort to prolong the process.
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown in
Brown v. Board of Education, a case involving a grade-school girl who was forced to ride the bus to a segregated school despite the fact that she lived within walking distance of an all-white elementary school. The ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the rule that segregation was acceptable as long as the schools were equal.
The Sarasota County School district did not abide by the newly established mandate until they were taken to federal court in 1961 by the local NAACP. The 1962-63 school year was the first time black students were allowed to attend previously all-white schools.
Most black communities in Florida supported busing as a step toward integration; however, in every case of desegregation in Florida, black students were transferred to formerly all-white schools. There was not a single instance of in which white teens were transferred to a formerly all-black school, according to the dissertation, "A Survey and Analysis of School Problems Associated with Desegregation of Florida High Schools – 1962-66" by William Allan Byrd.
The desegregation order divided the Newtown community into four districts and closed the community segregated schools including
Booker High School and Booker Junior High, schools that were rooted deep within the black community. Booker High, which had just celebrated winning a basketball state championship, was considered the pride of the black community.
"We felt we were being hijacked," former principal Jerome Dupree said of the closing in a 2013 Herald Tribune Article. "Of all the schools in the county, and Booker being among the oldest, why would they close our school? That was a slap in the face in our community."
The Booker alumni were forced to attend all-white sigh schools. Some of the students who lived within walking distance of Booker High and Booker Junior High now had to wake up at the dawn to catch a bus across the county. In addition, black students who dreamed of becoming homecoming queen, class president or valedictorian were now the minority in unfamiliar territory and their once achievable goals suddenly seemed very unattainable.
Of the black high-school students who moved from Booker to Sarasota High School and
Riverview High School, only fifty percent graduated.
According to Newtown Alive, they simply couldn’t handle the "adjustment of an environment that was so insensitive."
As one can imagine, it was a time of extreme racial prejudice and hostility, not only from students, but from teachers, administrators and so on.
Students were not the only ones negatively affected. Long-time faculty members who had dedicated their lives to the education of children found themselves without jobs because the schools where they worked had closed. Those offered new positions at area schools were hesitant to take the jobs as they did not want to work in such hostile environments. In many cases their positions were minimized. For example, a head coach might be offered an assistant coach position at a formerly all-white school.
Two other Newtown community schools were also closed. When the Sarasota County School District proposed closing another school near the Newtown area, Amaryllis Elementary, the community came together and took a stand.
On March 5, 1969, a total of 2,353 black students stayed home (85% of the black student population). At Booker Elementary, there were more teachers than there were children, according to a Herald Tribune article by Gabrielle Russon.
During the boycott, "freedom schools" were set up in community churches so the students didn't miss out on their education. High school students and New College attendees taught the classes.
According to Susan Burns, in the historical complication "Newtown Alive," the boycott was a pivotal moment that shaped the future of the Newtown community. "If the boycott of 1969 hadn't happened, Sarasota’s Booker schools–Booker Elementary, Booker Middle and Booker High schools–would not exist today."
Administrators and school board members assumed management
of Booker High School and reopened the campus with specialized curriculum and racial
quota that was to be maintained at 20-50 percent. The school underwent
renovations that included a paved driveway and a new auditorium, but when
the latter was rebuilt it no longer bore the name of the school's first
principal Roland Rogers, which upset many Newtown community members. When Booker
High School reopened it was unrecognizable. The once all-black community school
was now predominately white with a black population of only 25 percent. In
addition many of the school's artifacts commemorating its history and cherished
by the black community, were removed and discarded in the name of progress.
In 1973 the Union of
Concerned Parents (UCP) was formed to take action against a teacher who had
committed a violent crime against several African American students. According
to Newtown Alive, the teacher had tied the students to the back of a motorcycle
and dragged them around the football field. According to the document, the
school district refused to take action despite the teacher admitting to the
act. The UCP helped the parents of one of the students successfully sue the
school board.
The UCP would go on to
establish a youth offender program, broadcast journalism program, theater
project and young adult conservation camp. Their mantra was "Make it happen,
by any means possible."
In spite of the turmoil of the 1960s and the
segregation/desegregation conflict, the reestablishment of the schools within
the community was an important step in reclaiming the community identity.
African-Americans continued to persevere over the next few
decades. In 1982, citizens enlisted the help of the local NAACP, legally
challenging a system of representation that had historically prevented the
election of blacks to City government. Three years later, in 1985, Fredd Atkins
was elected as the first African-American citizen to serve on the City of
Sarasota Board of Commissioners. In 2001, Carolyn Mason became the first female
African-American Mayor to serve in the City of Sarasota's history. In 2008, she
was elected as the first African-American to serve on the Sarasota County Board
of County Commissioners.
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