40 YEARS LATER— REMEMBERING A LAWSUIT THAT MADE LOCAL POLITICS IN SARASOTA “BETTER AND BETTER”
BY JESSIKA WARD
40 years ago, in the year 1979, a federal lawsuit was filed by Newtown activists against the City of Sarasota. These activists were members of the Sarasota County branch of the NAACP and a group formerly known as the North County Civic League, but they decided not to file the lawsuit under the name of either organization. Instead, they filed the lawsuit under their names. Sheila Sanders, Edward James II, William Fred Jackson, and John H. Rivers are the plaintiffs listed on the lawsuit. Edward James II was the host of Black Almanac, John H. Rivers was the former president of the Sarasota County branch of the NAACP, and Sheila Sanders was the secretary of the Sarasota County branch of the NAACP.
“Fairness is a tree I climb everyday and I felt if we had district voting it would make a difference,”
said Sheila Sanders, the secretary of the Sarasota County branch of the NAACP in 1979.
“When we asked for district voting we heard things like ‘if it’s not broken why try to fix it.’”
Jerome Stevens, William Fred Jackson, Lee Roy Simms, Walter Gilbert, and Charles Benton were each candidates in the City Commission and each of them lost their race before the lawsuit was filed. Their losses were unnerving to the community because these 5 men were prominent figures in the Newtown community and Sarasota.
Jerome Stevens was the first African American person to own a funeral home in Sarasota. He was the owner of Stevens Funeral Home, Inc. from 1955-1995. William Fred Jackson was the first African American to start a newspaper in Sarasota. He owned The Bulletin, a newspaper that discussed black issues. Lee Roy Simms was a funeral director and Charles Benton was a banker. Walter Gilbert was also prominent in town. He was the president of the Sarasota County Branch of the NAACP in 1980-1985 and he was on the Ringling Redskin’s Board of Directors, eventually serving as President. Gilbert ran for City Commissioner 3 times. Once in 1979, once in 1980, and again in 1983. “I wanted to prove that a black person could not win with the at large system,” said Gilbert. Freddie Atkins served as the legal researcher on the 1979 lawsuit.
“I did all of the background research on that case for the attorney. The attorney was basically a name only because we were doing this on a shoe string budget,”
said Atkins. He says his research lead him to the fact that African Americans were not voting as much as the majority. “We wanted to prove that no matter how could of a candidate of African American decent the likelihood of them being elected was a minimal in the city of Sarasota in the at large process,” said Atkins. Their legal action sought a judgment against Sarasota’s at-large system that they felt weakened black voting strength. “The at large process was created by the South in Sarasota to disenfranchise African Americans and other groups that they didn’t want to be in power,” said Atkins. Sanders recalls how the lawsuit caused problems in the personal lives of all four activists. She explained that there were some people who believed her son received a scholarship to attend the Out of Door Academy (ODA). She says these same people lobbied school administration to take the scholarship away from her son only to find out that her son was not receiving financial assistance from anyone other than herself. “People pulled their advertisements from The Bulletin and people tried to threaten Ed’s show,” said Sanders. The Activists continued to fight and after several years passed, they won the lawsuit. “Everyone sitting as a city commissioner had to run again, with that there would be 3 districts and 2 at large so there would now be 5 seats. All of them up at the same time with plurality vote,” said Atkins In 1985 Freddie Atkins, was asked to run for the newly created District 1 City Commission seat, which includes Newtown, and he won it. “I loved this community and my people all my life,” said Atkins. “They trusted me because I had shown them that I love them.” Two years later he became Sarasota’s first black mayor. Atkins has served on the Commission for 18 of the past 32 years, being appointed as mayor 3 times. As a result of the lawsuit two other African Americans, Commissioner Shelli Ed die and Commissioner Willie Shaw, have been elected to serve as commissioners. Eddie has served as a City Commissioner since 2015. Shaw has served as a City Commissioner since 2011. Freddie Atkins plans to return to politics very soon. He will run for County Commissioner in the next election cycle.
