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{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Rosewood massacre
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| map_alt =
| location =
| target = [[
| coordinates = {{coord|29|14|0|N|82|56|0|W|type:event_region:US-FL|display=title,inline}}
| date = January 1–7, 1923
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}}
The '''Rosewood massacre''' was a racially motivated [[massacre]] of black people and the destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural [[Levy County, Florida]], United States. At least six black
Before the massacre, the town of Rosewood had been a quiet, primarily black, self-sufficient [[whistle stop]] on the [[Seaboard Air Line Railway]]. Trouble began when white men from several nearby towns lynched a black Rosewood resident because of accusations that a white woman in nearby [[Sumner, Florida|Sumner]] had been assaulted by a black drifter. A mob of several hundred whites combed the countryside hunting for black people and burned almost every structure in Rosewood. For several days, survivors from the town hid in nearby swamps until they were evacuated to larger towns by train and car. No arrests were made for what happened in Rosewood. The town was abandoned by its former black and white residents; none of them ever moved back and the town ceased to exist.
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Although the rioting was widely reported around the United States at the time, few official records documented the event. The survivors, their descendants, and the perpetrators all remained silent about Rosewood for decades. Sixty years after the rioting, the story of Rosewood was revived by major media outlets when several journalists covered it in the early 1980s. The survivors and their descendants all organized in an attempt to sue the state for failing to protect Rosewood's black community. In 1993, the Florida Legislature commissioned a report on the incident. As a result of the findings, Florida compensated the survivors and their descendants for the damages which they had incurred because of racial violence. The incident was the subject of [[Rosewood (film)|a 1997 feature film]] which was directed by [[John Singleton]]. In 2004, the state designated the site of Rosewood as a [[Florida Heritage Landmark]].
Officially, the recorded death toll during the first week of January 1923 was eight (six blacks and two whites). Some survivors' stories claim that up to 27 black residents were killed, and they also assert that newspapers did not report the total number of white deaths. Minnie Lee Langley, who was in the Carrier house when it was besieged, recalls that she stepped over many white bodies on the porch when she left the house.<ref name="historian"/> A newspaper article
== Background ==
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When U.S. troop training began for World War I, many white Southerners were alarmed at the thought of arming black soldiers. A confrontation regarding the rights of black soldiers culminated in the [[Houston Riot (1917)|Houston Riot of 1917]]. German [[propaganda]] encouraged black soldiers to turn against their "real" enemies: American whites. Rumors reached the U.S. that French women had been sexually active with black American soldiers, which [[University of Florida]] historian David Colburn argues struck at the heart of Southern fears about power and [[miscegenation]].<ref name="colburn"/> Colburn connects growing concerns of sexual intimacy between the races to what occurred in Rosewood: "Southern culture had been constructed around a set of mores and values which places white women at its center and in which the purity of their conduct and their manners represented the refinement of that culture. An attack on women not only represented a violation of the South's foremost taboo, but it also threatened to dismantle the very nature of southern society."<ref name="colburn"/> The transgression of [[miscegenation|sexual taboos]] subsequently combined with the arming of black citizens to raise fears among whites of an impending race war in the South.
The influx of black people into urban centers in the Northeast and Midwest increased racial tensions in those cities. Between 1917 and 1923, racial disturbances erupted in numerous cities throughout the U.S., motivated by economic competition between different racial groups for industrial jobs. One of the first and most violent instances was a [[East St. Louis Riot|riot in East St. Louis]], sparked in 1917. In the [[Red Summer of 1919]], racially motivated mob violence erupted in 23 cities—including [[Chicago Race Riot of 1919|Chicago]], [[Omaha Race Riot of 1919|Omaha]], and [[Washington, D.C.]]—caused by competition for jobs and housing by returning World War I veterans of both races, and the arrival of waves of new European immigrants.<ref>D'Orso, pp. 51–56.</ref> Further unrest occurred in [[Tulsa race riot|Tulsa in 1921]], when whites attacked the black Greenwood community. David Colburn distinguishes two types of violence against black people up to 1923: Northern violence was generally spontaneous mob action against entire communities<!--were its roots strictly economic, as suggested here? should say so-->. Southern violence,
[[File:Rosewood Massacre Map.PNG|thumb|350 px|alt=A color digital map showing the location of Rosewood in relation to other towns involved in the massacre|Map of [[Rosewood, Florida]] and the surrounding towns]]
In the mid-1920s, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK) reached its peak membership in the South and Midwest after a revival beginning around 1915. Its growth was due in part to tensions from rapid industrialization and social change in many growing cities; in the Midwest and West, its growth was related to the competition of waves of new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.<ref name="Jackson, pp. 82, 241">Jackson, pp. 82, 241.</ref> The KKK was strong in the Florida cities of [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] and [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]]; [[Miami, Florida|Miami]]'s chapter was influential enough to hold initiations at the Miami Country Club. The Klan also flourished in smaller towns of the South where racial violence had a long tradition dating back to the [[Reconstruction era]].<ref name="Jackson, pp. 82, 241"/><ref>Gannon, pp. 300–301.</ref> An editor of ''[[The Gainesville Sun|The Gainesville Daily Sun]]'' admitted that he was a member of the Klan in 1922, and praised the organization in print.<ref name="colburn"/>
Despite Governor Catts' change of attitude, white mob action frequently occurred in towns throughout north and central Florida and went unchecked by local law enforcement. Extrajudicial violence against black residents was so common that it seldom was covered by newspapers.<ref name="historian"/> In 1920, whites removed four black men from jail, who were suspects accused of raping a white woman in [[Macclenny, Florida|Macclenny]], and lynched them. In [[Ocoee, Florida|Ocoee]] the same year, two black citizens armed themselves to go to the polls during an election. A confrontation ensued and two white election officials were shot, after which a white mob destroyed Ocoee's black community, causing as many as 30 deaths, and destroying 25 homes, two churches, and a Masonic Lodge.<ref>Jones and McCarthy, pp. 81–82.</ref> Just weeks before the Rosewood massacre, the [[Perry Race Riot]] occurred on December 14 and 15
== Events in Rosewood ==
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=== Escalation ===
[[File:Rosewood Florida rc12409.jpg|thumb|200px|alt=A black and white photograph of a crude wooden structure that could be a small shed, animal house, or hunting cabin with smoke pouring from it and flames visible in the door|A cabin burns in Rosewood on January 4, 1923<ref group=note>The image was originally published in a news magazine in 1923, referring to the destruction of the town. Its veracity is somewhat disputed. Eva Jenkins, a Rosewood survivor, testified that she knew of no such structure in the town, that it was perhaps an outhouse. Rosewood houses were painted and most of them neat. However, the Florida Archives lists the image as representing the burning of a structure in Rosewood. (D'Orso, pp. 238–239) ([http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/ Florida Memory Archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918030112/http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/ |date=2008-09-18 }}
Despite the efforts of Sheriff Walker and mill supervisor W. H. Pillsbury to disperse the mobs, white men continued to gather. On the evening of January 4, a mob of armed white men went to Rosewood and surrounded the house of Sarah Carrier. It was filled with approximately 15 to 25 people seeking refuge, including many children hiding upstairs under mattresses. Some of the children were in the house because they were visiting their grandmother for Christmas.<ref name="moore"/> They were protected by Sylvester Carrier and possibly two other men, but Carrier may have been the only one armed. He had a reputation of being proud and independent. In Rosewood, he was a formidable character, a crack shot, expert hunter, and music teacher, who was simply called "Man". Many white people considered him arrogant and disrespectful.<ref name="historian"/><ref name="moore"/>
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Reports conflict about who shot first, but after two members of the mob approached the house, someone opened fire. Sarah Carrier was shot in the head. Her nine-year-old niece at the house, Minnie Lee Langley, had witnessed Aaron Carrier taken from his house three days earlier. When Langley heard someone had been shot, she went downstairs to find her grandmother, Emma Carrier. Sylvester placed Minnie Lee in a firewood closet in front of him as he watched the front door, using the closet for cover: "He got behind me in the wood [bin], and he put the gun on my shoulder, and them [[Cracker (pejorative)|cracker]]s was still shooting and going on. He put his gun on my shoulder ... told me to lean this way, and then Poly Wilkerson, he kicked the door down. When he kicked the door down, Cuz' Syl let him have it."<ref name="jones">Jones, Maxine (Fall 1997). "The Rosewood Massacre and the Women Who Survived It", ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', '''76''' (2), pp. 193–208.</ref><ref name="tropic">Moore, Gary (March 7, 1993). "Wiped Off the Map", ''Tropic Magazine'' insert to the ''Miami Herald'', pp. 14–25.</ref>
Several shots were exchanged: the house was riddled with bullets, but the whites did not
=== Razing Rosewood ===
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In 1982, an investigative reporter named Gary Moore from the ''[[St. Petersburg Times]]'' drove from the Tampa area to Cedar Key looking for a story. When he commented to a local on the "gloomy atmosphere" of [[Cedar Key]], and questioned why a Southern town was all-white when at the start of the 20th century it had been nearly half black, the local woman replied, "I know what you're digging for. You're trying to get me to talk about that massacre." Moore was hooked.<ref name="davey">Davey, Monica (January 26, 1997). "Beyond Rosewood", ''The St. Petersburg Times'' (Florida), p. 1A.</ref><ref>[[#Appendices|Jones ''et al.'', "Appendices"]], p. 398.</ref> He was able to convince Arnett Doctor to join him on a visit to the site, which he did without telling his mother. Moore addressed the disappearance of the incident from written or spoken history: "After a week of sensation, the weeks of January 1923 seem to have dropped completely from Florida's consciousness, like some unmentionable skeleton in the family closet".<ref name="moore">Moore, Gary (July 25, 1982). "Rosewood", ''The Floridian'', insert magazine of ''The St. Petersburg Times'' (Florida), pp. 6–19.</ref>
When Philomena Goins Doctor found out what her son had done, she became enraged and threatened to disown him, shook him, then slapped him.<ref name="video1"/> A year later, Moore took the story to [[CBS]]' ''[[60 Minutes]],'' and was the background reporter on a piece produced by Joel Bernstein and narrated by African-American journalist [[Ed Bradley]]. Philomena Doctor called her family members and declared Moore's story and Bradley's television exposé were full of lies.<ref>D'Orso, pp. 79–80.</ref> A psychologist at the University of Florida later testified in state hearings that the survivors of Rosewood showed signs of [[posttraumatic stress disorder]], made worse by the secrecy. Many years after the incident, they exhibited fear, denial, and [[hypervigilance]] about socializing with whites—which they expressed specifically regarding their children, interspersed with bouts of apathy.<ref name="jones"/> Despite such characteristics, survivors counted religious faith as integral to their lives following the attack in Rosewood, to keep them from becoming bitter. Michael D'Orso, who wrote a book about Rosewood, said, "[E]veryone told me in their own way, in their own words, that if they allowed themselves to be bitter, to hate, it would have eaten them up."<ref>Halton, Beau (October 21, 1997). [http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102197/2b3rosew.html "No Resentment, Survivors Say"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317111258/http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102197/2b3rosew.html |date=2008-03-17 }}
The legacy of Rosewood remained in Levy County. For decades no black residents lived in Cedar Key or Sumner. Robin Raftis, the white editor of the ''Cedar Key Beacon'', tried to place the events in an open forum by printing Moore's story. She had been collecting anecdotes for many years, and said, "Things happened out there in the woods. There's no doubt about that. How bad? We don't know ... So I said, 'Okay guys, I'm opening the closet with the skeletons, because if we don't learn from mistakes, we're doomed to repeat them'." Raftis received notes reading, "We know how to get you and your kids. All it takes is a match".<ref name="booth">Booth, William (May 30, 1993). "Rosewood: 70 Years Ago, a Town Disappeared in a Blaze Fueled by Racial Hatred. Not Everyone Has Forgotten", ''The Washington Post'', p. F1.</ref>
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Arnett Doctor told the story of Rosewood to print and television reporters from all over the world. He raised the number of historic residents in Rosewood, as well as the number who died at the Carrier house siege; he exaggerated the town's contemporary importance by comparing it to [[Atlanta, Georgia]] as a cultural center. Doctor wanted to keep Rosewood in the news; his accounts were printed with few changes.<ref>D'Orso, pp. 165–166.</ref> According to historian Thomas Dye, Doctor's "forceful addresses to groups across the state, including the NAACP, together with his many articulate and heart-rending television appearances, placed intense pressure on the legislature ... to do something about Rosewood".<ref name="dye"/> In December 1996, Doctor told a meeting at Jacksonville Beach that 30 women and children had been buried alive at Rosewood, and that his facts had been confirmed by journalist Gary Moore. He was embarrassed to learn that Moore was in the audience. As the [[Holland & Knight]] law firm continued the claims case, they represented 13 survivors, people who had lived in Rosewood at the time of the 1923 violence, in the claim to the legislature.<ref>D'Orso, p. 163.</ref>
The lawsuit missed the filing deadline of January 1, 1993. The speaker of the [[Florida House of Representatives]] commissioned a group to research and provide a report by which the equitable claim bill could be evaluated. It took them nearly a year to do the research, including interviews, and writing. On December 22, 1993, historians from [[Florida State University]], [[Florida A&M University]], and the [[University of Florida]] delivered a 100-page report (with 400 pages of attached documentation) on the Rosewood massacre. It was based on available primary documents, and interviews mostly with black survivors of the incident. Due to the media attention received by residents of Cedar Key and Sumner following filing of the claim by survivors, white participants were discouraged from offering interviews to the historians. The report used a taped description of the events by Jason McElveen, a Cedar Key resident who had since died,<ref>D'Orso, p. 183.</ref> and an interview with Ernest Parham, who was in high school in 1923 and happened upon the lynching of Sam Carter. Parham said he had never spoken of the incident because he was never asked.<ref>D'Orso, pp. 192–193, 253–254.</ref> The report was titled "Documented History of the Incident which Occurred at Rosewood, Florida in January 1923".<ref>"[http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/library/bibliographies/Rosewood_bib.cfm Rosewood Bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410115151/http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/library/bibliographies/Rosewood_bib.cfm |date=2014-04-10 }}
=== Rosewood victims v. the State of Florida ===
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==Rosewood remembered ==
=== Representation in other media===
{{multiple image|header=Rosewood historical marker<br>(front and back)|align=right|direction=vertical|image1=Rosewood, Florida historical marker (1).jpg|alt1=A color photograph of the front of the bronze plaque in Rosewood next to the highway|image2=Rosewood, Florida historical marker (2).jpg|alt2=A color photograph of the back of the bronze plaque in Rosewood}}
The Rosewood massacre, the ensuing silence, and the compensation hearing were the subject of the 1996 book titled ''Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town Called Rosewood'' by [[Mike D'Orso]]. It was a ''[[New York Times]]'' bestseller and won the [[Lillian Smith Book Award]], bestowed by the [[University of Georgia]] Libraries and the Southern Regional Council to authors who highlight racial and social inequality in their works.<ref>[http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/lilliansmith/lsawardwinners1.html "Lillian Smith Book Award "] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009171320/http://www.libs.uga.edu/hargrett/lilliansmith/lsawardwinners1.html |date=2012-10-09 }}
The dramatic feature film ''[[Rosewood (film)|Rosewood]]'' (1997), directed by [[John Singleton]], was based on these historic events. Minnie Lee Langley served as a source for the set designers, and Arnett Doctor was hired as a consultant.<ref name="persall"/><ref name="sylbert">"Raising 'Rosewood'", ''TCI'' (March 1997), pp. 40–43.</ref> Recreated forms of the towns of Rosewood and Sumner were built in Central Florida, far away from Levy County. The film version, written by screenwriter [[Gregory Poirier]], created a character named Mann, who enters Rosewood as a type of reluctant Western-style hero. Composites of historic figures were used as characters, and the film offers the possibility of a happy ending. In ''The New York Times'' [[E.R. Shipp]] suggests that Singleton's youth and his background in [[California]] contributed to his willingness to take on the story of Rosewood. She notes Singleton's rejection of the image of black people as victims and the portrayal of "an idyllic past in which black families are intact, loving and prosperous, and a black superhero who changes the course of history when he escapes the noose, takes on the mob with double-barreled ferocity and saves many women and children from death".<ref name="shipp"/> Singleton has offered his view: "I had a very deep—I wouldn't call it fear—but a deep contempt for the South because I felt that so much of the horror and evil that black people have faced in this country is rooted here ... So in some ways this is my way of dealing with the whole thing."<ref name="levin">Levin, Jordan (June 30, 1996). "Movies: On Location: Dredging in the Deep South John Singleton Digs into the Story of Rosewood, a Town Burned by a Lynch Mob in 1923 ...", ''The Los Angeles Times'', p. 5.</ref>
Reception of the film was mixed. Shipp commented on Singleton's creating a fictional account of Rosewood events, saying that the film "assumes a lot and then makes up a lot more".<ref name="shipp">Shipp, E. R. (March 16, 1997). "Film View: Taking Control of Old Demons by Forcing Them Into the Light", ''The New York Times'', p. 13.</ref> The film version alludes to many more deaths than the highest counts by eyewitnesses. Gary Moore believes that creating an outside character who inspires the citizens of Rosewood to fight back condescends to survivors, and he criticized the inflated death toll specifically, saying the film was "an interesting experience in illusion".<ref name="persall">Persall, Steve, (February 17, 1997) "A Burning Issue", ''The St. Petersburg Times'', p. 1D.</ref>
=== Legacy ===
[[File:House in Roswwood, Florida, US.jpg|right|thumb|The only remaining house in Rosewood]]
The State of Florida declared Rosewood a Florida Heritage Landmark in 2004 and subsequently erected a historical marker on [[Florida State Road 24|State Road 24]] that names the victims and describes the community's destruction.<ref name="curry">{{cite news
|last=Curry
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615080657/http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090122/NEWS/901220298 |archive-date=2011-06-15
|newspaper=[[The Gainesville Sun]]
|url-status=dead}}</ref> Scattered structures remain within the community, including a church, a business, and a few homes, notably John Wright's. Mary Hall Daniels, the last known survivor of the massacre at the time of her death, died at the age of 98 in [[Jacksonville, Florida]], on May 2, 2018.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Caplan|first=Andrew|date=May 28, 2018|title=Longest-living Rosewood survivor: 'I'm not angry'|work=The Gainesville Sun|url=https://www.gainesville.com/news/20180528/longest-living-rosewood-survivor-im-not-angry|access-date=November 21, 2020}}</ref> Vera Goins-Hamilton, who had not previously been publicly identified as a survivor of the Rosewood massacre, died at the age of 100 in [[Lacoochee, Florida]], in 2020.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Carter|first=Rod|date=June 17, 2020|title=Pasco County woman said to be true Rosewood survivor passes away|work=Channel 8 (Tampa)|url=https://www.wfla.com/news/pasco-county/late-pasco-county-woman-said-to-be-last-true-rosewood-survivor-passes-away/|access-date=November 24, 2020}}</ref>
Rosewood descendants formed the Rosewood Heritage Foundation and the Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc., in order to educate people both in Florida and all over the world about the massacre. The Rosewood Heritage Foundation created a traveling exhibit that tours internationally in order to share the history of Rosewood and the attacks; a permanent display is housed in the library of [[Bethune-Cookman University]] in [[Daytona Beach, Florida|Daytona Beach]].<ref name="curry"/> The Real Rosewood Foundation presents a variety of humanitarian awards to people in Central Florida who help preserve Rosewood's history. The organization also recognized Rosewood residents who protected blacks during the attacks by presenting an Unsung Heroes Award to the descendants of Sheriff Robert Walker, John Bryce, and William Bryce.<ref name="awards">Tinker, Cleveland (March 16, 2006). "[http://www.gainesville.com/article/20060316/GUARDIAN/60315042 Real Rosewood Foundation Hands Out Awards"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615080820/http://www.gainesville.com/article/20060316/GUARDIAN/60315042 |date=2011-06-15 }}, ''The Gainesville Sun''. Retrieved on April 8, 2009.</ref> Lizzie Jenkins, executive director of the Real Rosewood Foundation and niece of the Rosewood schoolteacher, explained her interest in keeping Rosewood's legacy current:
<blockquote>It has been a struggle telling this story over the years, because a lot of people don't want to hear about this kind of history. People don't relate to it, or just don't want to hear about it. But Mama told me to keep it alive, so I keep telling it ... It's a sad story, but it's one I think everyone needs to hear.<ref>{{cite news
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|newspaper=[[The Gainesville Sun]]}}</ref></blockquote>
The Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc., under the leadership of Jenkins, is raising funds to move John Wright's house to nearby [[Archer, Florida]], and make it a museum.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Descendants mark racial violence that razed town 100 years ago
|first1=Isabella
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|date=January 1, 2023}}</ref>
The
== See also ==
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[[Category:1923 in Florida]]
[[Category:1923 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1923 riots in the United States]]
[[Category:African-American history of Florida]]
[[Category:Arson in Florida]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Levy County, Florida]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in the United States]]
▲[[Category:History of racism in Florida]]
[[Category:January 1923 events]]
[[Category:Levy County, Florida]]
[[Category:Lynching in the United States]]
[[Category:Mass murder in Florida]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1923]]
[[Category:Massacres in the United States]]
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