Event commemorates integration of Sarasota beaches

When Odessa Butler was a teenager, she joined a caravan of black Sarasota residents who waded into the water on Lido Key to protest regulations that kept the public beach segregated through the 1960s.

Butler, who was part of the first in a series of treks from Newtown to Lido Beach that began in 1955, recounted the challenges those who organized and participated in the caravans faced.

“It was very trying times, because they did not want us at the beach,” Butler said.

See also: Participants join in annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Walk

Today, Butler was again part of a group who traveled from Newtown to Lido Beach — this time, to celebrate the integration of the beach and a national honor recognizing the history of Sarasota’s black community.

Newtown Alive! and Visit Sarasota County organized a re-enactment of the caravans and Lido Beach wade-ins that advocated for integration. The event, held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, also commemorated the addition of Newtown’s African-American heritage trail to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

The campaign to integrate the beach was one of the reasons the heritage trail was added to the national list of historic sites, according to a release.

Members of the original caravans, along with their families and other community members, sang and posed for pictures on the sand and alongside a historic marker recognizing the integration of Lido Beach.

Butler said the event was significant for her — not just because it honored the work done in the past to fight for civil rights, but because it served as a reminder of the work that still remains.

“It’s something that was so needed at the time, and the fight is not over,” Butler said.