Emma E. Booker
Emma Edwina Booker is an African American woman who pioneered and pushed for the education of Black children in Sarasota County, Florida. She left her legacy with three schools in the area named in her honor – Emma E. Booker Elementary, Booker Middle, and Booker High School.
Early Life
Born in Live Oak, Florida, in 1886, she moved to segregated Sarasota to start and teach at the only elementary public school for Black children. Besides where she grew up, virtually nothing is known about her early life.
Education
Throughout her career, while teaching and running the school, she also continued her education, completing her bachelor’s degree after about fifty years of working towards it.
Career
The school started out in rented halls until she ran a fund-raising drive to give the school its own building. Students learned from discarded books from white students. She then became the first principal of Sarasota Grammar School in 1923. The grammar schools started out in rented halls, but were finally given their own building in 1925. Booker worked to raise money for the school building, along with the help of the Rosenwald fund, which was a fund established in 1917 used to fund projects to enhance education for Blacks, mainly in the South (Roose, Holly). Along with Sarasota Grammar School, she went on to open a middle school and a high school, which had its first graduating senior class in 1935[1]
Death and Legacy
All that is known about Booker’s death is that she passed away in 1939 at the age of 53[2] Emma Booker was described as “A record that will live forever in the hearts and minds of the people of Sarasota.” Today in Sarasota County, Emma E. Booker Elementary, Booker Middle, and Booker High School are all named in her honor [3] As the school was named in her honor, it was written in an editorial that she “preserved, personally encouraging students, underwriting their continued education and pressuring intransigent administrators to provide for Blacks the same educational opportunities available to whites.” [2] She also has a dedicated plaque in Sarasota County [1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Booker Schools | Sarasota History Alive!". www.sarasotahistoryalive.com.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Emma Booker". Newtown 100. April 16, 2014.
- ↑ "Sarasota History Biographies". www.allaboutsarasota.com.
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