A Message from The CEO of Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition
Our work at SAACC is about more than preserving history—it’s about uplifting legacy. History calls us to act that the future is brighter for generations unborn. We’re here to tell the stories that textbooks and the media missed, the ones passed down through generations, full of faith, strength, and determination.
We recently learned that Lt. Col. George E. Hardy —the last living Tuskegee Airman fighter pilot from WWII—resides right here in our community. That’s the kind of history that surrounds us, waiting to be honored.
This weekend, we’re thrilled to welcome Nettie Washington Douglass to Sarasota. She is the great-great-granddaughter of both Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and the great-granddaughter of David T. Howard. Nettie continues her family’s legacy of education and empowerment by updating the seminal work, The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass. It’s a first-hand account of slavery that exposes its brutality, its impact on the abolitionist movement, and its relevance as a literary work.
Our past is powerful— and our commitment is clear, to lift the voices of marginalized citizens.
