Confounding Powers of Legalese Booker School Boycott, Diplomatic Doublespeak, and the Battle over Reciprocal School Desegregation in Sarasota, Florida

Joshua Orr

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harvey, David

Keywords

Civil Rights, Sarasota, Newtown, Desegregation, Black History, Crunk, Florida History, Integration, Race Relations, Education, African American History, Flywash

Area of Concentration

History

Abstract

This thesis project is an historical case study of public school desegregation in Sarasota, Florida in the period ranging from the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruling to the early 1970s, centered around the 1969 Newtown Citizens Committee boycott, in which over ninety percent of the county's black students boycotted the public school system. The thesis argues that the legendary boycott, credited in local mythology with almost single-handedly saving the future of the neighborhood's Booker High School, was ultimately manipulated and rendered weak by minor and strategically worded concessions from the Sarasota Board of Public Instruction, against which the boycott was directed. The thesis attempts to highlight circumstances and policies that provoke concerted acts of civil disobedience as a necessity, the obstacles preventing such action's effectiveness, and the potential ways to overcome them. Research is drawn from the archives of local newspapers, the Sarasota Board of that views the events of boycott and Sarasota desegregation in a broader contemporary, regional and national context.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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