Almost immediately, citing severe erosion and dangerous currents as an excuse, the City of Sarasota attempted to head off any new caravans by closing the section of the Lido Key beach the blacks had visited in the past. In addition, the Tampa Morning Tribune reported, there were rumors that the City Commission was considering selling the popular Lido Casino to "private interests to keep the Negroes off the beach."

The beach issue was divisive even in Newtown, where World War II veterans like Humphrey, fed up with discrimination and determined to claim their rights, clashed with some of their elders, who believed half a loaf was better than none at all. Segregation had been the way of life and many were comfortable with it and even preferred it; but most of all, they feared what pushing for change could bring, even in peaceful Sarasota.

As hope, fear and anger simmered across the county, the County Commission matched the city's lead by considering a referendum to "get out of the beach business" altogether.

According to a "Negro leader" quoted in Sarasota's The News, "the NAACP coming in and swaying our meeting has backfired on them, because our people are not going to do anything about integration. We just want a beach of our own." When an expected caravan to a local beach failed to materialize on Sunday, Oct. 23, many believed it proved that such a Newtown backlash against the NAACP existed. But Humphrey claimed there never were any plans to visit a beach that day and that "a lot of untruths have been printed" about the NAACP and the supposed backlash. He vowed they would continue to pursue integration regardless of the actions of the city and county commissions.

Four months later, in mid-February of 1956, after another failed attempt to secure a site for a black beach on Longboat Key, the County Commission appointed another citizen's committee, this time headed by local contractor George Higgins. By the end of the week, the committee made several recommendations. First, it recommended the purchase of a tract of land near Midnight Pass on Siesta Key-the same location the first beach committee had recommended almost two years before. And if that didn't illustrate enough the circular nature of this issue, the next recommendation was sure to bring "jellyfish and stingrays" to mind. The committee also recommended that the City of Sarasota finance and build a swimming pool for the Newtown community. But as those who had followed the issue from the beginning knew, committees had made recommendations before. It was far from over.

More than 300 residents of the Midnight Pass area and Siesta Key showed up at the County Commission meeting the next evening. So many people filled the commission chambers that the meeting had to be moved to a county courtroom to accommodate the crowd. The meeting lasted for five hours, as 27 people spoke on topics ranging from fair representation on the committee to the supposed instability of the proposed beach, which would make it impossible to construct the necessary facilities. In the early morning hours, Chairman Gustin M. Nelson attempted to turn the tide by reading a telegram from Siesta Key resident and Pulitzer Prize-winning author MacKinlay Kantor. Kantor supported the beach and implored the commissioners to "not be deterred." Amid shouts and grumbles from the audience, Nelson put off any decision on the beach until the following Thursday and closed the meeting.

By Wednesday, the Thursday meeting had been postponed to the following Monday. By Friday, members of Higgins' special beach committee were being scrutinized all over town. Many Siesta Key residents questioned the motives of the committee members and asserted the Midnight Pass beach was chosen mostly to keep it off Longboat or Lido. But whether about racial prejudice then or a dispute over an airport, a prison, a Wal-Mart or nuclear power plant now, this is an eternal conflict that now even has a name: NIMBY, or "not in my back yard."

That Monday, the County Commission planned to address regular business in the morning session and reserve the afternoon for the much-anticipated beach decision. But as they readied to adjourn for lunch, a motion was raised, seconded, and unanimously passed. As the crowd poured in that afternoon, they were instructed by Chairman Nelson to "refrain from any oral expression by cheering or booing." He then read the motion, passed prior to lunchtime recess, that rejected the recommendation of the beach committee on the grounds that the property was "unstable and unsuited" for development. The responding cheers were deafening.