“ An Entire Town was burned down over a LIE!”

[00:00:00]On New Year's Day 1923, a white woman in Sumner, Florida claimed she had been assaulted by a black man.

[00:00:08]The accusation was almost certainly false. Some from the local community recounted that a white man, possibly her lover, was seen visiting that morning and may have been the one who assaulted her. But the truth did not matter.

[00:00:21]A mob was already forming.

[00:00:23]Rosewood was a quiet, primarily black, self-sufficient community in rural Levy County, Florida, home to approximately 200 people. A thriving whistle-stop on the Seaboard Airline Railway with black-owned homes, businesses, and a church. On New Year's Day, a white posse descended on Rosewood searching for the accused black man. Residents defended their homes and a firefight left several white attackers dead. In retaliation, even more white men poured into Rosewood intent on total destruction. Hundreds joined the mob. Acts of systematic violence continued until January 7th. By the time the mob dispersed, the town had been almost totally destroyed.

[00:01:08]Businesses, churches, and homes burned to the ground. Most black residents fled into the surrounding swamps, hiding in freezing temperatures with no clothes, no shoes, and nothing. Those who could not escape were murdered. The officially recorded death toll was 86 black and two white, but eyewitness accounts suggested a much higher toll of 27 to 150.

[00:01:33]A grand jury was convened in February 1923.

[00:01:38]It found insufficient evidence to prosecute. No one was ever charged. The survivors scattered across Florida, never speaking about what happened. The story was suppressed for decades.

[00:01:52]It was not until 1982 when investigative reporter Gary Moore persuaded survivors to tell their stories that the full extent of the tragedy came to light.

[00:02:03]In 1994, the Florida legislature passed a bill allotting the nine [clears throat] living survivors $150,000 each. The first time in American history that a legislative body paid reparations to black people.

[00:02:17]Mary Hall Daniels was 3 years old when she was whisked from her bed into the freezing Florida swamps. She never returned to Rosewood. She died in 2018 as the last known survivor.

[00:02:29]A thriving black community erased in a week over a false accusation buried for 60 years.

[00:02:38]Share this.

[00:02:39]Because Rosewood existed.

[00:02:42]And what happened there must never be forgotten.