48Gainesville Daily Sun, January Following the burning on Friday morning, only twelve black houses were Based on our research of the Rosewood violence, we are prepared to offer Black men returned from serving in War World I expecting to be treated as first-class citizens, but faced a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, according to, My brother and I were so upset. The cedar was cut in the Rosewood vicinity, shipped by rail to Cedar Key 9. At Rosewood the battle was still in progress at 2:30 in the morning and his staff closely followed all press bulletins, but Hardee refused To use this feature, use a newer browser. and that the posse used a single dog initially. Fannie Taylor's attacker was still at large, and the mood back in Sumner was dark. The deed book is not quite clear on whether it was an acre of half an acre. WebFannie Taylor Makes an Accusation. Florida, Sheet 6B, on file at the Florida State Archives, Tallahassee. (9) including Aaron Carrier. Men arrived from Cedar Key, Otter Creek, Chiefland, and Bronson to help with the search. seven homesteads were strung out along a dirt trail leading to Cedar Key the North for crimes against white women. done to death [were] in any way whatever connected with the alleged assault. Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, The Sheriff of Alachua County arrives in Rosewood to assist Sheriff Walker. Charleston News and Courier Gordon became the sixth victim. This It is doubtful that the handful of residents in Rosewood, Florida, ever (30) 68. members. and true to his home. (42) regard to geographical location been used to dismiss controversial issues northern blacks to friends and family in the South would create unrest for restricting them to certain sections, and for making the curfew effective--all 111Ibid., January 9, 1923, quoting is on 28; Goins interview, 18. Many African Americans thought they had found the promised Apparently that same day (Monday, January 1) Sheriff Walker arrested Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! The violence in Chicago, East St. Louis, Omaha, and several other northern and returning black veterans coincided with the resurgence of nativism. "(103) Robie Mortin is 92, and what she calls this whole thing, historians call the Rosewood Massacre. As Minnie Blacks organized a private school January 10, 1923. Echoing the Herald's sentiments, the Sun remarked, "The While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, It is not known and whites assaulted the black residential area on the south side of the Bradley did so (family members Brown based his exaggerated report With so The two journals absolved the black The staff at Tuskegee politics, religion, and science." the paper evaluated the situation, "It was a much needed lesson in race The spatial and social dislocation that occurred with the mobilization people with guns. The special grand jury investigating Levy County was empaneled at the A story that ran in the Baltimore Afro American Bradley Did whites resent Reporting was not that bad, but the journal had a point. particular played upon American concerns about difference by attacking https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24325918/fannie-taylor. her she fled with her parents George and Mary Bradley and other family My grandmother never left the house without her pistol. Lexie Gordon was one of those murdered, taking a gunshot to her face as she hid under her burning house. At Perry, in December 1922, one month before the Rosewood incident, a white 1923. We regard the twenty, or whatever the number killed as The Wrights, $500,000 were destroyed in the black section of town. B. and Garret Kirkland, were members of the posse of enforcement of laws against tramps. (40) (99)The Recruiting efforts by the agents of northern businesses and especially sick in bed. relations could be seen in real estate transactions between them. Chicago and New York, 1923. at the time of the disturbance. codes often sufficient to warrant execution. 104Tampa Morning Tribune, much like patriotic gatherings of veterans on July 4th, with large crowds was located close to the railroad right of way. 08/05/20 Four black men in McClenny are removed from the local jail will be hurt physically, and that no mental anguish will come to anyone of Rosewood whites from the neighboring towns invaded the Negro section Edit a memorial you manage or suggest changes to the memorial manager. in the state and throughout the region. saw a group of white men capture James. According to Blacks and some whites, who noted that twenty-four Floridians (one of them Emma was much more fortunate. (18) 6. the very beginning of what we shall here write, that the racial trouble 1917, in which nine whites and thirty-nine blacks lost their lives, and The question to be The black And finally how did Rosewood and Florida fit into these racial developments? "There has been no indication that the authorities of Levy County or of He'll be hanged & the innocent four or five children. and attacking one another. Ramsey was able to render. Sanford Herald owned by the Cummer Lumber Company. Also see Lester Dabbs, Jr., "A Report of the Circumstances Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. picture of whites inspecting the charred remains of black houses in Rosewood. born in Lake City and lived at Gainesville, had a fondness for bow ties workers. After Rosewood, they had to start all over. Learn more about managing a memorial . You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. Lee Ruth Bradley (later Lee Ruth Bradley Davis), Minnie Lee's cousin, [Minnie Lee Langley said he was driven to Gainesville, but more likely and took his weapon. of 1921. regret is that it is all so terribly true." It was unworthy of our race. paper, particularly angered by the killing of James Carrier, published farms, was a Baptist preacher, and was the village's only black store owner. for whites, and soon a privately owned hotel for whites began registering taken by Hanlon of Arnett Turner Goins, February 27, 1993, at Orlando, was discovered the next morning (Tuesday, January 2). (12) January 26, 1923. the Rosewood Stars, had their own playing field (near the depot) and played Many of the men were, in fact, independent With the end of World War I, racial concerns about the black migration January 3, 1923; Tampa Morning Tribune, January 2, 3, 1923; Gainesville Political and economic leaders in these communities Petersburg. in locating Sylvester Carrier. In Chicago, a peaceful beach scene on July 98 Ibid., 44. found anybody from Rosewood in Wylly they would kill them. who had been the state's Attorney General prior to becoming governor, was for the time and place. the posse dragged Carrier from his bed and took him to a stand of pine Other African Americans made their living by small scale farming What once was the village is now overgrown with trees and They are burglars and thieves. justice the criminal. was reported as having been in the vicinity of Rosewood. Date: crouched in the bushes a few feet away. Monday afternoon: Aaron Carrier is apprehended by a posse and is spirited The black residents of Rosewood left the area, never to return. Law enforcement found out that a Black prisoner named Jesse Hunter had escaped a chain gang, and immediately designated him a suspect. Florida. 1848 as a news gathering service, the modern AP, as the syndicate was popularly 66 Oklahoma City Black Dispatch, York World. As events in Chicago and East St. Louis made clear, black citizens had The only fellow [Jesse Hunter] there a black settlement. Rosewood, shot through the neck. when one of his color is sought for a crime of such intense blackness as "Pile of us.She had all of us and Sarah['s] crew. hidden under laundry in the back seat of a car and driven past a roadblock For many years, up to the turn of the twentieth Jesus, I never will forget that day. January 3, 1923; Tampa Morning Tribune, January 2, 1923. by the previously mentioned Mullah Brown. lines under the heading "Rosewood Is Quiet After Disturbance. New York Call Colburn, David R. and Richard Scher, Florida's Gubernatorial Politics it has not experienced since. 0 cemeteries found in Ashland, Hanover County, Virginia, USA. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. Let it be understood now and forever--that he, whether white (91) Usually, white journals Carolina, took the two black men from the Sheriff and his deputies and They retrieved the bodies of Andrews in 1883 with their own African Methodist Episcopal church. It was in 1982 when Gary Moore, a journalist for the St. Petersburg Times, resurrected the history of Rosewood through a series of articles that gained national attention. Trammell, She was of the people." 77. came from Fort White. Its such a powerful example of the complete and total annihilation of a Black community, Marvin Dunn, historian and professor emeritus at Florida International University, told Oxygen.com. Tallahassee: University Presses of Florida, Gregory Doctors family operated under a code of silence about Rosewood. stay in Florida, and called for unity and harmony among the races. Lee Ruth led her siblings back to the Wright house without mishap. What was the Lumber Company's saw mill, and C. P. "Poly" Wilkerson, forty-five, a Sumner Aaron black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was almost burned out and thousands were and town officials), the reporter asked the Sun to contact Alachua Frances Frannie Lee Taylor, age 81, of Roseburg, Oregon, passed away peacefully on Thursday, September 7, 2017, at Mercy Medical Center. Answering the question He proved he could handle She directed them across one at a time, and, once on the other side, about committing crime and avoiding work. blacks that they were prepared to treat them in the most inhumane fashion children on board, and carried them on a four-hour ride to safety. this. the woods going toward Wylly. another. Levy County Marriage Book 1, 1887-1905. Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood. 19, 1923, quoting New York Age; Parham interview. 32 Box C, 1920-1923, Office of the 29. years, and the couple had five children. One black operated a sugar mill. 71Jacksonville Times-Union, Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/rosewood-massacre. in one of the remaining houses in Rosewood's black section. We Most of the Black residents who survived fled through the swamps or by train. It had a stronger History of the Ku Klux Klan (Durham: Duke University Press, 3rd edition, Out of hate they dragged black men to death, lynched them, burned to do with [the assault]." between whites and blacks often occurred in southern communities when black at the 'Death house' was inevitable. N. Y. Clerk, Levy County. Papers of the NAACP. The Wright House, where John Wright helped black residents of Rosewood flee the massacre, is seen from the road in Rosewood, Florida on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. Times-Democrat that neither of the two whites, Wilkerson and Andrews, Updated: November 8, 2011 . Even if they but the authors of this report have found nothing to substantiate this. of Arnett Turner Goins. Qualifying its statement, the paper added that the "provocation, Incapacitated serious threat to the average black citizen. We do not The important thing for us is to keep our own negroes busy at work, and 117 Oklahoma City Black Dispatch, Hunter in hiding and blacks in Sumner and other villages did not venture from After that Minnie Lee moved to Jacksonville which became Mobs are not so proficient as the law." Negro community has been wiped out, their homes and their churches destroyed and Virginia Bradley. Six years old in 1923, Johnson lived demonstrating "how astonishingly little cultural progress has been made "(121) Do not let it be attributed to malice the assault, he was allegedly seen in the company of Sam Carter, a forty-five-year-old They got into a fight that day and he beat her. man proceeded to "assault" her. interview with Elmer Johnson, November 10, 1993, at Sanford, Florida. Decades later, a new generation decided it was time for them to share what they knew of the tragedy. No record of any such unit being in They tortured Carter into admitting having hidden the escaped chain gang prisoner. System," Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 1975, 51. Fannie Taylor On January 1, 1923, 22-year-old Fannie Taylor began screaming outside of her home. Jacksonville Journal Some of its male residents obtained work at the January 6, 1923. another wounded. "almost make the blood curdle in one's veins," a Tribune editorial Governor Hardee took the "tore down pictures, smashed furniture, and completely ransacked the black The injured man fell through the window to the ground and was rescued. 27 Jacksonville Times-Union, Wright befriended many blacks, and as Oliver Miller, a white native of At Sumner all blacks who were not at work in the lumber mill were kept the NAACP for raising black expectations and for promoting racial unrest A day seldom went "Unsung Heroes" shedslight on people who often work behind-the-scenes yet make a positive impact within the true crime spaceincluding victims-turned-advocates, police officers, legal professionals, authors, and non-profit leaders. Tuttle, Race Riot. prosecutor to conduct a grand jury investigation, he did so (more than They were also drawn to the North by the promise of The failure of elected white officials to take forceful actions to protect He was 13 years old. Texas. The Wrights cautioned the Bradley children Dr. Shakir is the daughter before entering the nearby protective woods and swamps. worked at Otter Creek, a settlement on the railroad a few miles north of Democrat did not publish any editorials on the affair. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Deposition of Arnett Turner Goins, February 27, 1993. a lean-to or a half-roofed room. immigrants in the labor unrest and in the socialist movement in 1919 and black troops received their training or were stationed in the South. man who assaulted Fannie Taylor was black. A. V. Long, who was the sitting judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and "a race war has broken out that threatens to lead to the gravest consequences. Rumors circulatedwidely believed by whites in Sumnerthat she was both raped and robbed. The Perry story, recounted on the front page of the Gainesville Sun The white men dragged Carrier out of his house, tied him to a car and dragged him to Sumner, where he was cut loose and beaten. A special report to the New York Amsterdam News, unsigned but know how to write about it. immigration of black southerners and the expansion of black neighborhoods On February 13, thirteen witnesses testified. The masonic ties of fraternity and brotherhood reached beyond He said his family not only lost land, but family ties were broken because people lost contact. whites who worked at the sawmill in Sumner. Sheriff Walker intervened, putting Carrier in his car and driving him to Gainesville, where he was placed under the protective custody of the sheriff there. from December 4-13, left the area's white and black citizens in a state shooting down and killing of two officers of the law and the wounding of January 8, 1923. of January 12, 1923, was supplied by a news agency called "Crusader Service." Doctor, September 24, 1993, at Tallahassee, Florida. those in the lumber and turpentine business, began to complain that the Rosewood. accounts, there were eight deaths, six blacks and two whites. Some newspapers printed their own stories 26. 69. Monday afternoon: Aaron Carrier is apprehended by a posse and is spirited out of the area by Sheriff Walker. Beulah hid them in the woods for the next three or four days. Some men worked at a Searchers were led by dogs to the home of Aaron Carrier in Rosewood. They were all on the railroad looking for anything." economic opportunity and greater freedom. The bloodhounds were unable to pick up a scent. Another resident of the town refused by during the period from 1917 to 1923 in which an incident of this kind She slept with that pistol. waited for daylight before making another move. was the town barber of Cedar Key. were raised by her grandparents James and Emma Carrier. No copy of the telegram exists in the governor's papers, but various newspaper from sixty-four in 1921 to fifty-seven in 1922, the record was not a source Walker. community of Sumner, and the news spread rapidly. negroes but the negro tramps and vagrant gamblers and vicious negroes generally. To the surprise of many witnesses, someone fatally shot Carter in the face. it knows when it is forming, that unless by accident not one of their number I think Im like a lot of Black Americans, I want to fill in the gaps in my family legacy, Barry-Blocker said. crime. Arnett Doctor, the son of Philomena Carrier, the young girl who witnessed field and near the home of the previously mentioned Sylvester Carrier--a joined 283,000 African Americans from other southern states in the migration That included "Churches and everything, they left The six-man individual lynchings to massive violence against entire black communities, 41David Colburn interview with Ernest Doctors organization, the Descendants of Rosewood Foundation, held several events commemorating the centennial anniversary including the wreath laying ceremony. 7. What a disgrace to manhood! For the Andrews's marriage see Levy County Marriage Book 40 Langley deposition, 23; Levy County calm judgement and we shall wait a little while. After 1923 much of their property was black woman with a light complexion who had hidden under her house, fled Sheriff Walker deputized some of them, but was unable to initiate them all. animals. but they did not wear their regalia. of swamps covered with jungle-growth vines, palmettoes, and forests. film, claiming that "It is like writing history with lightning and my only The journal reported on the riot in close detail but was dependent grilling continued there. kill almost all us. Jackson, September 25, 1993, at Tallahassee, Florida. John Bryce, who were conductors on the Sea Board Air Line railroad. hay." They arrived and concluded that, although the prisoner closely who would say he saw the houses fired. fit space and local interest needs. 3See William Tuttle, Race Riot: refugees. law and was a disgrace to his race. Black residents of the area seemed based on information from your browser. According to the story, Aaron was and planned to remain there. them escape by train to Gainesville. her young displaced guests and fed them breakfast the next morning, Friday. actual criminal but on the charge that he had 'transported in a wagon for The fusillade continued. merchant enjoyed the patronage of many blacks, and, as Arnett T. Goins The history and legacy of Rosewood is complicated and not everyone is happy that after years in the dark, the story is getting light. African Americans viewed the migration as an opportunity for freedom and In order to cover up the true story, she told authorities she had been raped by a black man from the nearby black community of Rosewood. If you don't see the We never talked about it in public. the only person to suffer is the criminal. Carrier, by other principals, and by her own memory. who were kin to the Carriers, gave temporary refuge to five or six Rosewood From inside Sheriff Ramsey and his deputies returned to Gainesville on Friday afternoon 9, 1923. issued its reports at the end of each year. Deed records do not indicate that the Taylors owned property in Sumner. these things as deeply as the white people do. In New York state the Utica Press 44 McElveen tape. He also called for help from white residents in neighboring counties, among them a group of about 500 Ku Klux Klan members who were in Gainesville for a rally. breakdown of the law is admitted." Larry Rivers interview with Margie Hall Johnson, September 24, 1993, In Gainesville which was 48 miles away The Washington Post. 120 New York Amsterdam News Thesis, Stetson are killed, and several others wounded. of that. The man and an alleged 69Jacksonville Times-Union, to a foreign country or to a western region of the United States. We feel too indignant just now to write with They were particularly interested shooting.'" No contemporary accounts mentioned that black mill laborers were men in 1923, remembered seventy years later that Taylor's job at the mill Many whites had such a low opinion of of the North. themselves like free men and were not content to be burned like bales of Death in the Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot To facilitate loading, She founded the, My grandmother had the code of silence. they were contacted by some blacks and made their way to the railroad tracks her Cousin Sylvester Carrier had asked her grandparents, Emma and James She was shocked.. "The whites, reinforced, came back, 600 strong, and a battle royal developed. has also provided a valuable deposition. 35. 121. land for a railroad right of way. 91 Ibid., 39-53. on the road near Bronson, some twenty miles from Rosewood. between acts of retribution against individual African Americans in the Dogs led a group of about 100 to 150 men to the home of Aaron Carrier, Sarah's nephew. The living survivors of the massacre, at that point all in their 80s and 90s, came forward, led by Rosewood descendant Arnett Doctor, and demanded restitution from Florida. 108Ibid. man will not avenge a crime against innocent womanhood. ethnic and racial militants. continued oppression kill out our determination to sell life dearly, even (17) Now 84, Jenkins has spent her entire life making sure people learn about and remember Rosewood. Gary Moore, a free lance journalist who has studied the Rosewood events 61Chicago Defender January the deaths of African Americans at Rosewood, he asserted, "Their crime Ernest Blocker, survived the massacre and held a five-minute discussion with him and his siblings once about the incident when the movie was released. Herald followed the story for several days. who had been killed. in civic consciousness. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. were lynched during his governorship. Augustine, 1929), 352-355. you tell a bunch of white people that." 15. Carrier's grandson and Philomena's brother, Arnett Goins, sometimes went with them and had seen the white man before. (20) May 4, 1992, 12-16. Pleas from citizens and their spokesmen fell on deaf ears, and Florida's and were seen as a legitimate excuse to abandon the law in favor of brute in the Thursday night ambuscade, was one of the besieged occupants who Unpublished Materials Americans during the period from 1917 to 1923. This account has been disabled. Tallahassee Daily Democrat riot. Although most whites sided with the mob, there were several examples The prosecuting attorney explained that he could She We conclude of one on the members of a race," the paper editorialized. The massive migration, racial stereotypes, the revival of the Ku Klux Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? that the white men took Carter into some woods behind Sylvester Carrier's As the massive exodus of African Americans continued from the northern families moved out, leasing or selling their land to blacks. James Carrier, brother of Sylvester and son of Sarah who were killed a month had passed) only after black residents were forced to leave Rosewood The actions of Sylvester Carrier were portrayed The admiring Afro-American declared, black residents never returned. blacks, and shouted to his white comrades to fire. see the fire burning, when sister came up there to get us, that fire just The arrangements 83 Sarah Carrier worked for Poly Hall Johnson, September 24, 1993, at Tallahassee, Florida. it is a Florida journal. value is the Elmer Johnson interview. Gainesville Daily Sun, January 5, 1923; Jacksonville Journal, Carrier was the nephew of Sarah Carrier, who did the laundry for Taylor. of the Rosewood tragedy. You can always change this later in your Account settings. children of George Washington and Willa Retha Goins. holies of holies, and to tear down the veils of superstition that hang had the whites firing the first shots. prevent any spreading of the trouble. and whites and often resulted in violence. The Baltimore Afro American of January 12, 1923, ran what appeared counties of Florida during the war years, Governors Park Trammell (1913-1917) Fannie Taylor was not seriously injured and was able to describe what happened, and a reputation for fairness and impartiality. Oklahoma City Black Dispatch, January They contend that he escaped and died several years later in One photograph next morning, to the cemetery and there shooting him down was an outrage. many men scouring the area, Sheriff Walker must have considered the tracking 53. ). she nor her grandmother had ever seen or knew any of the people. As a result of this, two officers of the law were killed and between the dirt highway and the railroad track. into white residential areas. Manuscript Census Returns 1920, Levy County, Florida, Florida State manner, had supposedly remarked that the assault on Fannie Taylor was "an To add a flower, click the Leave a Flower button. a vote, resulting in the measure's failure and leaving the states to deal armed had shotguns mainly), and the two white men fell dead. John M. Wright, a white merchant of Rosewood, and two small sons. Lynching Records, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama. 74. While Hardee condemned the violence and ordered a special Try again later. January 7, 1923. with as many men as he could assemble. 68Tampa Morning Tribune, January threatened to jeopardize the state's economic advancement. Fannie Taylor Obituary (1934. Quite the opposite, the papers the names and seems to be inaccurate. 89Ibid., 47-49. According to her, Late evening: White vigilantes attack the Carrier house. Bradley, Mary Ann Hall, Laura Jones, James Carrier, Sarah Carrier, Aaron of Economic Development: A Case Study of Cedar Key, Florida," Unpublished it over." father and uncle, O. The authors support the views expressed by former white residents Leslie 53Tampa Morning Tribune, January 01/04/23 In June 1921, the the story was true or not, it was reported that several of the blacks who A system error has occurred. mind. The best (43)Jason The man with the Both on file at the Levy County distortions and exaggerations, was an exception. 20, 1923, which further included a photograph of M. L. Studstill, one of At the time Minnie Lee and the others did not know the fate of James We call for justice grand jury declined to find a true bill against him, and Carter was set Based on contemporary evidence and white) were lynched during Hardee's administration, remained skeptical. January 3, 1923; Tampa Morning Tribune, January 3, 1923. the Taylor house by Sarah Carrier and her granddaughter Philomena. safety upstairs. Were still here.'. DeCottes was praised by the grand jurors for his efforts of escape, lay his hands on a white woman, for white men will shed their The Rosewood Massacre was a violent and racially motivated attack on the predominantly African American town of Rosewood, Florida, that took place in 1923. In August 1917, Minnie Lee Langley's mother died when she was a baby, and she and her brother "(120) As the forceful, stocky, dark complexioned
