Rosewood, FL was a thriving town with a bustling economy. The population was 95% Black & most of its residents owned their own homes & businesses.
That was until a white woman got beaten by her extramarital lover & told the town it was a “n*gger” to hide it from her husband #BHM
Fannie Taylor — the white woman — lived in Sumner.
A white town that was a few miles from Rosewood.
In Gainesville — which was 48 miles away — the Klan was holding its biggest rally ever in that city.
500 people attended.
Fannie’s husband gathered an angry mob of whites from Sumner, enlisted many of the Klan rally attendees from Gainesville and whipped them up into a frenzy.
They were told of a black man named “Jesse Hunter” who’d escaped prison & were convinced he was being hidden in Rosewood.
The angry mob went door to door terrorizing the citizens of Rosewood. The sheriff advised them to hide inside their businesses. The mob tortured a local blacksmith, Sam Carter, until he falsely admitted he was hiding Hunter. When Carter failed to produce Hunter he was murdered.
Sarah Carrier was a black woman who worked for the Taylors. She hid as many as 25 people in her home, leading to an overnight standoff where eventually the mob broke the door down to get inside. The children fled into the woods. Sarah and her son were shot and killed.
Before his death, Sarah’s son Sylvester had taken up arms inside the house and shot any white man who attempted to enter. He killed many. This ENRAGED whites in nearby states. Armed resistance by blacks was unthinkable at that time. More whites then descended upon Rosewood.
After a few days the news spread of what was happening in Rosewood. Except the story reported was that bands of armed black people were going on a rampage. This led to even more angry white men pouring into the area believing a race war had broken out in Rosewood.
They set the churches, houses, and businesses on fire. Then shot people as they were escaping the flames. Many citizens hid in nearby swamps — where they stayed hidden for DAYS.
John Wright was one of the few white residents of Rosewood. He owned the local general store. He and his wife provided shelter to many of the blacks in the town. The sheriff led many people to Wright’s home.
John and William Bryce — two wealthy white northerners — owned a train. They drove it down to the area and invited escapees. Through they refused black men — too afraid it would attract the white mob.
The Florida governor Cary Hardee offered to send the national guard, but the Sheriff refused. Claiming he had the situation under control. Then the governor went on a hunting trip. The carnage continued for days.
Blacks were ripped from their homes, hunted down in the woods like prey, and had their limbs mutilated and removed before they were either shot, hung, or both. The mob dug a mass grave where they placed the bodies, including children and infants. They posed for pictures.
When the white mobs were done, there was nothing and nobody left of Rosewood. Except for the home of John Wright — the white general store owner. There are stories of black body parts being kept in Mason jars as souvenirs from the whites who participated.
White people wanted segregation. These Black people were living peacefully in an all black town. And a false allegation with no evidence prompted a group of angry white men to burn a prosperous self-sufficient black town to the ground.
A grand jury was impaneled, the Rosewood riot investigated, and "insufficient evidence" found to indict anyone.
For decades the survivors of this massacre kept silent about what happened there. Both blacks and whites. Eventually when they spoke out and told their stories, they were able to get the state of Florida to give the survivors and their families a multimillion dollar restitution.
John Singleton made a movie about this tragic, disgusting event called Rosewood — starring Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Esther Rolle and Jon Voight.
#BlackHistoryMonth
The movie’s depiction of the “inviting incident” where Fannie makes the decision to blame a phantom Black man for her boyfriend beating her
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