Renée James Gilmore on Continuing Her Family’s Historic Local Legacy
This article originally appeared in Sarasota Magazine. To read the original article, click here.
Gilmore is the daughter of the late activist Dr. Ed James and the great-granddaughter of Mary Emma Jones, who led the 1955 wade-in efforts to desegregate Sarasota beaches.
Renée James Gilmore. Image: Jesse Clark
A fourth-generation Sarasotan, Renée James Gilmore is a descendant of people who advocated for change—and made history doing so—in the Newtown community.
She’s the daughter of Dr. Ed James II, who was known for his activism and his nearly 50-year run as the host and producer of ABC7’s Black Almanac, one of the longest-running local public affairs programs. She’s also the great-granddaughter of Mary Emma Jones, who led the 1955 “wade-in” efforts to desegregate our beaches.
Proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Gilmore, 66, began her career as a journalist at ABC7 after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Florida A&M University. She went on to earn her MBA from Clark Atlanta University and led multibillion-dollar companies throughout the state, including the Florida Department of Labor, the Florida Workforce Innovation Agency and the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance. She also founded the Saja Group, a consulting firm that guides micro-businesses through strategic planning, helping them tell their story in the marketplace while coaching leaders and helping them leverage assets.
Her numerous awards include recognition for capacity building and innovative programming from the U.S. Department of Labor; being named “CEO of the Year” by Tampa Bay CEO magazine; a gubernatorial appointment to the Southwest Florida Water Management District; being named a 2024 “Woman in Power” by the National Council of Jewish Women Sarasota/Manatee; and recognition from the White House for business innovation in government.
Today, in addition to running Saja, Gilmore has come full circle and is taking up her father’s mantle, acting as host and executive producer of ABC7’s show Empowering Voices, a public affairs program which explores the interests of underrepresented communities. She sits on the board of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, chairs the Sarasota National Cemetery advisory committee, and serves on both the Boxser Diversity Initiative and Florida Studio Theatre advisory committees. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Who influenced you as a kid?
“My great-grandmother, Mary Emma Jones, is one of my idols. She is one of the people who made my childhood extraordinarily wonderful. I loved hanging out with her because she always generated conversation—asking my opinion, saying ‘Renée, what do you think about this or that?’”
Tell us more about her.
“She was a businesswoman, community activist, humanitarian—all the best attributes rolled into one exceptional person. Whatever business acumen I have, I credit her. And this is a woman who was not a college graduate, but she had an intuition about money.
“The Newtown community was the Black community; it was boundary-centric. My great-grandmother owned multiple businesses within it. One was called Jones Barbecue and Taxi Stand on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., where she provided an essential service for Black folks when Black businesses were thriving in Newtown. She knew that everybody needed transportation, like the domestics who worked on Longboat or Siesta keys. She also picked up medicine from pharmacies to drop off to people who couldn’t get out because they were ill.”
“My great-grandfather was also active—he did a lot of the cooking—but she really was the one handling the money. I remember that my brother Mark and I could get anything we wanted to from her store, like ice cream or cookies. But she always told us that we had to put money in the till so that everything would balance. It made us aware that nothing is free; everything needs to have an accounting. She was serious about her inventory and books balancing.”
What else can you tell us about her?
“She was able to take care of the family by being a good businesswoman. That also allowed her to have enough to share with others. She had a big, generous heart. Many may not have had a healthy meal were it not for her helping families who couldn’t manage it.
“She also had rooming houses on 27th Street. Only later in life did I come to know about the Green Book; I’m sure her rooming houses were listed in it. There was a big need for housing for people of color, and she filled that need.”
What did you learn about Sarasota from her?
“For many years, we’ve seen development in Newtown and watched the landscape change. While in the back of her taxi, in the late 1960s and early ’70s, she would say, ‘Look at what they’ve done. They completely moved that cow pasture or built over the orange grove.’ It didn’t mean a whole lot to me as a kid, but as I think back on it as an adult—while she was observing the change in Sarasota, she made sure I was aware, too.
“And she exposed me to much of Sarasota from the backseat of her taxi because we were all over the place—including at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, while Marie Selby herself was still alive. And now here I am, with the good fortune of serving on the board of directors there.”
Tell us about your father, who also made a huge impact on Sarasota.
“My father was protective of his children and his family. He was a big man who spoke with authority, and he wasn’t afraid to challenge people. I knew my dad was going to take care of whatever needed to be taken care of.
“Growing up in my family, I was always conscious that, on any given day, someone might not come home because my family members were the type who would step up to good trouble. There were years where I worried about getting a knock at the door and somebody saying, ‘Your dad’s not coming home.’ I was conscious that people get killed for championing civil and voting rights.”
What are some mistakes made by people trying to contribute to communities of color?
“One of the mistakes is that they feel an obligation to teach us something that they think we don’t know. For instance, thinking because something has not been done means we don’t know how to do it. Many times, things that are not done can be attributed to the fact that we have not had access to the resources it would require. Black communities don’t have the same opportunities as the white community. And that’s not whining, it’s a real thing.
“Come to the community for a conversation and be willing to listen from the standpoint that you don’t know everything. Don’t come with what you think are all the answers. Just because you’ve got a good solution to an issue that happened over there doesn’t mean it’s the same solution here. As they say, when you’ve got a hammer as a solution, everything will look like a nail to you.
“Start with an open mind. Just listen to folks.”
What do you say to young people who don’t want to vote, or don’t think their vote matters?
“The one thing that makes my hair feel like it’s on fire is when I hear a person of color say they don’t—or won’t—vote, or that there’s no reason to because their vote doesn’t count. I am always surprised by this.
“I ask them, ‘Do you know what it took for us to have the right to vote?’ We stand on the shoulders of those who fought the fight, and some lost their lives in that fight.”
What would you like your white friends or acquaintances to be doing right now?
“Take time to understand the history of the Black experience in this country. The thing that separates Black folks from others is that many of us are not immigrants. We were brought to this county en masse, under duress, robbed of our names and languages, then made to feel different, like the other. It was literally written into the constitution that we were called chattel.
“When we talk about race and pointing out the facts, it’s not to make anybody feel guilty. We’re not saying, ‘I hold you responsible for people who came before you.’ It’s just acknowledging that it is a real thing.
“Take the time to read and learn with an open mind to have a better understanding of how we came to this point in this country. I think it would open doors so we can move forward.”
Listening to Black Voices is a series created by Heather Dunhill