Launched in 2018, the Sarasota & Manatee Community Remembrance Project (Manasota Remembers) commemorates the lives of victims of racial terror in Southwest Florida.
The first two phases of the project have been completed: a Racial Justice Essay Contest in March 2023 and the Dedication of a Lynching Memorial Marker in February 2024. A committee of community leaders has recently embarked on the third and final stage, Soil Collection. This important phase brings together members of our community to collect soil from the sites where six documented lynchings took place between 1903 and 1934. The objective of the Soil Collection is to create space for our community to confront history and become participants in the commemoration of lives unjustly taken.
Special thanks to Fox 13's Kimberly Kuizon for her coverage of the Manasota Remembers Soil Collection Project.
Manasota Remembers is a joint effort led by the Boxser Diversity Initiative in partnership with the Manasota Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Newtown Alive, the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, and the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. This project is made possible by generous support from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.
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