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.   

Betty Jean Johnson is a voracious

reader who loves traveling to faraway places through books.

Her teacher Prevell Barber stoked an

appreciation for the written word. “I always had to read something in her class

or around her. The fact of it is when I read, I travel. We didn’t have TV until

later.” Johnson thought her college education would lead to a career in social

work.

Instead, a high school class in

“library procedures” changed her trajectory after graduating from Gibbs Junior

College in St. Petersburg. Back then, Manatee Community College, now known as

State College of Florida was off limits to African Americans. Mary Emma Jones,

a well-respected entrepreneur and community leader orchestrated the hiring of

Mary Thomas at the Sarasota Public Library.

Thomas helped Johnson land a job

there. The facility was not a welcoming place for African American patrons.

Johnson understood what Newtown residents encountered. “For a book report, I

had to go to that library for a book because we didn’t have it at the Booker

library. There were ‘closed stacks’ closed to Blacks. The lady at the desk had

to go to the stacks to get the book. When I started working there, those same

people were there.” For years, a perplexing question dogged Johnson. “What can

I do to get more Blacks to use the library?” A solution to the conundrum came

while preparing to work a split shift. She would ask the boss for use of an old

book mobile the library was about to replace. Instead, administrators provided

an outreach van that made books accessible to African American children.

From a van to a storefront library

operating on a shoestring budget, Johnson and supporters kept pushing, even

though for years their efforts seemed fruitless. Finally, the North Sarasota

Public Library opened as a result of the seed of an idea that Johnson planted.

The facility is named after her.

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.”