Local NAACP hosts "Stay WOKE" Votercade bus tour in Newtown June 21

SARASOTA — A statewide bus voter registration and community advocating initiative, dubbed the 'Stay Woke' Votercade, is scheduled to stop in Sarasota's Newtown community at Bethlehem Baptist Church on June 21 from 9-11 a.m.as part of a 15-city Florida NAACP tour.

The church is at 1680 18th Street in Sarasota.

Manasota NAACP organizers and president Trevor Harvey will welcome residents and visitors to visit the bus on its fourth day of the week-long tour, which began in Jacksonville on June 18.

Harvey said locally the tour is an opportunity to educate residents about recently passed Florida laws that affect not only Black residents but many other marginalized residents in the region and state as well.

With stops in Gainesville, Ocala, Tampa, and Orlando before making its way here, the tour will continue Wednesday after Sarasota to Fort Myers. Organizers will wrap up the NAACP's Wednesday itinerary in Miami.

The event was the idea of the Transformative Justice Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that works toward equal voting rights and other causes. The Manasota chapter of the Florida NAACP as well as local groups and six other national organizations, including the League of Women Voters and the Rainbow Plus Coalition, are participating.

"The goal of these brief two-hour stops in all 15 cities across the state is to mobilize the communities and really make sure our communities are really aware of what's happening in the state of Florida," Harvey said. "These laws that our government is putting into place, and how detrimental to communities of color − we have to inform our community about what's happening."

Other issues, such as the start of Florida's new open carry policy which takes effect on July 1, Harvey said, also prompted the bus tour and the community activation and engagement.

The bills SB150/HB543 will eliminate the need for a concealed weapons license, which required a mandatory background check and a firearms training course.

"We have issues with this open carry law that’s coming down, too. It will have adverse effects on communities of color. I’m telling people to continue to go through the licensing process. I’m concerned about giving people open season to carry, not being vetted, or going through the appropriate channels…," Harvey said.

"All we can do is educate and make people aware; they say that it’s equal but it's not going to be equal for everyone. And people have to understand that: the laws are different for us. It won’t guarantee the same protection for communities of color."

Speakers, strategies such as voter registration, poll visits, and voter law education will be discussed during the stop at Bethlehem Baptist in Newtown in Sarasota. Harvey and the Manasota NAACP will also be hosting a banned book giveaway for the community — sharing some of the 10,000 recently donated banned books collected from the Florida NAACP over the past several months.

Bethlehem Baptist's Rev. Patrick Miller will host the event at the church following the bus ride that will be through the historic Newtown community.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Bus tour will stop in Sarasota's Newtown as part of NAACP initiative