Sarasota County NAACP to honor community service at 38th annual Freedom Awards Banquet

Special to the Herald-Tribune
·2 min read
2023 Bayshore High School graduates Ariel Samedi and Anastasia Samedi will be honored with the Rising Stars Award at the 38th annual Sarasota County NAACP Freedom Awards banquet on Oct. 5 at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota.
2023 Bayshore High School graduates Ariel Samedi and Anastasia Samedi will be honored with the Rising Stars Award at the 38th annual Sarasota County NAACP Freedom Awards banquet on Oct. 5 at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota.

The Sarasota County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will honor Sarasota youth, business leaders and organizations who have had an impact in the community at the 38th annual Freedom Awards banquet on Oct. 5 at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota.

The 2023 Freedom Awards honorees are Sarah Wertheimer, Embracing Our Differences executive director (Community Service); Ron Turner, Sarasota County supervisor of elections (Public Service); retired Riverview High School boys basketball coach James Ward (Lifetime Achievement); the Gamma Xi Boulé Foundation (Education); educator Jacqueline Jones and Rev. John Walker Jr., Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Leader (President’s Award); 2023 Bayshore High School graduates Ariel Samedi and Anastasia Samedi (Rising Stars); and Javaris Williams Jr., MBA (Go Forth and Prosper).

Trevor D. Harvey has served the Sarasota County NAACP as president since 2006.
Trevor D. Harvey has served the Sarasota County NAACP as president since 2006.

“We are honoring individuals and organizations that consistently demonstrate a selfless duty to serving our community,” Sarasota County NAACP president Trevor Harvey said. “It is exciting to watch Sarasota transform into the melting pot, where people know they are accepted as they are, and model how society is supposed to be.”

Since taking the helm in 2006, Harvey has guided the course of social, racial and political equity for Newtown residents, including this year’s ‘Stay Woke’ Votercade that made Sarasota one of its 15 stops in the Florida NAACP tour to increase voter registration among Blacks. His leadership has been critical to establishing positive relationships with local law enforcement agencies, providing COVID-19 vaccines to Newtown residents and ensuring all Sarasota County residents have equal access to clean and affordable housing.

Established in 1951, the Sarasota County NAACP has been instrumental in reducing disparities between local Black and white residents.

Community activist and former Sarasota County NAACP president Neil Humphrey Sr. spearheaded a 10-year beach caravan and wade-in project, including 100 Newtown residents, to protest Blacks being prohibited access to Sarasota County beaches despite the 1964 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination based on race, color, religion sex or national origin. His successor, John Rivers, led a boycott against Sarasota County Schools after it failed to integrate all public schools following the 1954 Supreme Court Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka ruling, which declared segregated schools unconstitutional and a violation of the 14th Amendment.

For more information, including ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities for the Freedom Awards banquet, contact Cynthia Howard at cshoward1@verizon.net or 941-724-4205.

Submitted by Nicole Brown

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota NAACP to salute advocates for equality at awards banquet