NCF joins fight to preserve Black history

It was exciting to witness an important, grassroots community effort inching one step closer to realization last week.

A Sarasota African American Art Center and History Museum, proposed by the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, Inc. (SAACC) for the historically Black Newtown community, gained support with an affirming 5-0 vote in the Sarasota City Commission meeting on August 2. To see the broad support for the measure reflected in the testimony of more than 35 community members was especially gratifying.

Among those testifying were Newtown residents as well as Sarasota community leaders, philanthropists, students and scholars—including New College faculty members Uzi Baram, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and heritage studies; Sarah Hernandez, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology and Latin American and Caribbean studies; and Queen Zabriskie, Ph.D, dean of diversity, equity and inclusion, and associate professor of sociology. Others with New College ties, such as notable alumnus and natural historian Jono Miller ’70, also testified.

New College faculty, students, staff and alumni have made numerous contributions to the recognition and preservation of the history of Newtown and the Manasota area’s Black community—from the documentation of historic Black cemeteries, to the retelling of the forced transition of the Black community from Overtown to Newtown, to the Lido wade-ins protesting the Jim Crow segregation of Florida’s beaches, to the student walkouts that forced the Sarasota school district to reconsider closing the community’s beloved Booker High School in the 1960s.

“To understand the history of Sarasota-Manatee, New College students need to engage its Black heritage, and I have found local residents eager to offer connections for service learning and research,” Baram said. “Attending the City Commission meeting is part of that longstanding commitment to Newtown and its heritage.”

Baram’s commitment—and those of his colleagues—have made a profound impact on the community. For me, personally, since returning to the city of my birth to join New College in 2019, discovering local history has been a constant source of wonder and affirmation. It’s a history that is slowly gaining national recognition.

Knowledge of our community’s history has enriched me, and I believe it enriches us all. The museum and cultural center proposed by the SAACC is an important step toward ensuring that this history is captured so that future generations might be inspired.

It means a lot to me to be a part of a community (both the larger Sarasota community and our own New College community) that “gets it”—that sees the value in supporting culture and history that is all too often lost. Members of the Newtown community and members of the New College community, working collaboratively, have put in tremendous effort to support our local Black heritage and to support the preservation of that history.

Congratulations to Vickie Oldham, a Newtown native and the president of the SAACC, and her amazing team. I am looking forward to further progress on this important initiative as we grow stronger—together—as a community.

For more information on the proposed art center and history museum, click here.

Bill Woodson, Ph.D. is the dean of outreach at New College of Florida.