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MrScorpio

(73,631 posts)
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 09:54 AM Apr 2018

A white mob wiped this all-black Florida town off the map.

A white mob wiped this all-black Florida town off the map. 60 years later their story was finally told
Even by the standards of the 1920s South, the chain of events in Rosewood were unfathomable

Nine-year-old Minnie Lee Langley was outside with her mother on New Year’s Day 1923 when she saw them coming: a mob of white men marching toward her hometown of Rosewood, Florida. A daughter of the Jim Crow South, where violence against black people was part of everyday life, Minnie knew that all those white men together meant terrible trouble.
“We was out there in the front yard and them crackers were just coming down the railroad just as far as you can see, some of them,” she recalled in a radio documentary in the 1990s. “Just as far as you could look, you could see them in those big white hats and on horseback.”
Even by the standards of the 1920s South, the chain of events that followed was unfathomable. Over the course of a week, Minnie Lee’s small town would be wiped off the map, with the families who lived there so terrified to speak of what happened that the town was almost wiped from history, too.

Rosewood was a relatively well-off, nearly all-black town a few miles from Florida’s Gulf Coast, with an African Methodist Episcopal church, a Masonic lodge that doubled as a schoolhouse, and two general stores. Most of the people who lived there were domestics for white families in nearby Sumner, or worked in that town’s sawmill. The white mob had been summoned after the screams of Sumner resident Frannie Taylor brought neighbors running to her door on the morning of January 1. Taylor had been beaten, her face visibly bruised, and she claimed her attacker was black. Eyewitness accounts from her domestic workers told a different story; they said she was struck during an argument with the white lover she was seeing while her husband was at work. Nevertheless, the group of whites, numbering in the hundreds according to white witness and Sumner resident Edith Foster, were deputized by the county sheriff. They’d followed a bloodhound’s nose two miles to Rosewood and Minnie Lee’s family’s front yard, where they grabbed Aaron Carrier, Minnie’s uncle, and started looking for rope to tie him up with. “Mama just went to crying and all that, saying ‘Don’t kill him ’cause he don’t know nothing about this,’” Langley recalled. The sheriff intervened and took Carrier to a nearby jail for his own safety; it was the only time that white authorities would help black residents of Rosewood.

https://timeline.com/all-black-town-rosewood-wiped-off-the-map-by-white-mob-73ca6630802b
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A white mob wiped this all-black Florida town off the map. (Original Post) MrScorpio Apr 2018 OP
Their story is not just being told, there was a whole movie about it and these events SweetieD Apr 2018 #1
At the same time it was happening in small towns all over the south and parts of the midwest.... marble falls Apr 2018 #2
Yes. Example East St Louis and Red Summer of 1919 (100-240 AA killed) Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2018 #4
Halifax, Nova Scotia razed Africville in the mid-60s OnlinePoker Apr 2018 #12
The movie "Rosewood" came out in 1997 mcar Apr 2018 #3
The 60 Minutes story was 1983 oberliner Apr 2018 #5
I worked with Vin Rhames Roy Rolling Apr 2018 #11
OK come on Skittles Apr 2018 #25
Interesting mcar Apr 2018 #36
Thank you for that. I have never heard of it, but will put it on my list. smirkymonkey Apr 2018 #34
I love about an hour away. We've driven past a few times mcar Apr 2018 #37
The Case for Reparations mountain grammy Apr 2018 #6
There's a movie about Rosewood. PatrickforO Apr 2018 #7
How many Rosewoods are there? AwakeAtLast Apr 2018 #8
the destruction heaven05 Apr 2018 #15
Greenwood TheSmarterDog Apr 2018 #24
There's the one about the small island in Maine. It was the subject of a public radio documentary. 3Hotdogs Apr 2018 #9
locally they tried to hide the story from spreading . lunasun Apr 2018 #10
this nt heaven05 Apr 2018 #13
Greenwood also. A white mob killed over 300 at the wealthy "Black Wall Street" in 1921 greatbaldeagle Apr 2018 #14
I had not heard of this..unsurprisingly. dixiegrrrrl Apr 2018 #18
I have to wonder what stopped the Klan. BobTheSubgenius Apr 2018 #16
My guess would be prosecutions greatbaldeagle Apr 2018 #17
Morris Dees of the Southern Law Poverty Center stopped the Klan. dixiegrrrrl Apr 2018 #19
I've always considered James Byrd's 1998 murder a de facto lynching misanthrope Apr 2018 #28
I remember that. I agree. dixiegrrrrl Apr 2018 #29
Where is "down here?" misanthrope Apr 2018 #30
Down here in LA...Lower Ala. dixiegrrrrl Apr 2018 #32
This paragraph is so appropriate for today ProudLib72 Apr 2018 #20
Sounds familiar. smirkymonkey Apr 2018 #35
Wasn't he playing golf during Charlottesville? ProudLib72 Apr 2018 #39
Kick for exposure. oasis Apr 2018 #21
Thank you. People need to know. Rec. n/t Judi Lynn Apr 2018 #22
Search Ocoee, Florida GulfCoast66 Apr 2018 #23
Before the feature film... The Blue Flower Apr 2018 #26
I remember when that bill passed mcar Apr 2018 #38
K&R BumRushDaShow Apr 2018 #27
And we think Lidice was so horrible. raccoon Apr 2018 #31
a white mob heaven05 Apr 2018 #33

SweetieD

(1,660 posts)
1. Their story is not just being told, there was a whole movie about it and these events
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 10:01 AM
Apr 2018

Have been documented for decades. There are many more burnout stories which are not as well known, particularly if only a few black families lived in the area. My 2nd great grandfather and his family and a few other black family's in his region were run out. He lost his land and the others too. But officially the local government seized them through "tax" sales for failure to pay taxes, but of course you aren't going to pay taxes on land that you have been run out of.

marble falls

(57,461 posts)
2. At the same time it was happening in small towns all over the south and parts of the midwest....
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 10:10 AM
Apr 2018

including in a small town just west of my town (where the KKK marched with assault rifles and someone burned a cross on a black community's property two years ago).

Roy Rolling

(6,943 posts)
11. I worked with Vin Rhames
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 12:13 PM
Apr 2018

We were shooting a movie "Out of Sight" and he had just wrapped "Rosewood". He was so excited about Rosewood it was all he could talk about. Then, I had no idea of Rosewood. Thanks, Vin. An excellent portraying of an evil history.

mcar

(42,458 posts)
37. I love about an hour away. We've driven past a few times
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 08:52 PM
Apr 2018

Just a small sign saying "Rosewood" and... Nothing. Not a house, not a street,not a crumbling barn. It's eerie.

mountain grammy

(26,665 posts)
6. The Case for Reparations
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 11:31 AM
Apr 2018

published in the Atlantic, June, 2014, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

PatrickforO

(14,604 posts)
7. There's a movie about Rosewood.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 11:44 AM
Apr 2018

Hard to believe that stuff like that could start happening again, but it sure could. We're going in the wrong direction really fast.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
15. the destruction
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 12:42 PM
Apr 2018

Of 'Black Wall Street' 1921. Attacked, aerially BOMBED and razed, victims dumped in mass graves. These were just the ones too large to hide. I AM SURE, given the vicious racist nature of this white racist nation I live in, that there were many, many more. Unnoticed or truly swept under the rug.

3Hotdogs

(12,462 posts)
9. There's the one about the small island in Maine. It was the subject of a public radio documentary.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 11:59 AM
Apr 2018

Residents were majority black and/or interracial. They were declared mentally incompetent and were driven off the island.

Malaga Island

greatbaldeagle

(157 posts)
14. Greenwood also. A white mob killed over 300 at the wealthy "Black Wall Street" in 1921
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 12:39 PM
Apr 2018

It just boggles the mind that the great "christian" white folk of America were capable of carrying out the slaughter of over 300 people in Greenwood, Oklahoma over one allegation of a white girl being assaulted. An entire thriving wealthy community of Americans who "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" were wiped out because they were born with a different skin color than the murderers who perpetrated this disgusting massacre. That's why you notice when the media refers to the Stephen Paddock mass shooting in Vegas they often qualify it by saying it was the largest mass shooting in "recent" history.

CNN ran a special on it a few years ago. One of the sickest things I've ever heard about happening in this country. What a disgrace.

Here is the video

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
18. I had not heard of this..unsurprisingly.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 03:00 PM
Apr 2018

James Bradley, who wrote Flags of Our Fathers, wrote The Imperial Cruise, about how Teddy Roosevelt set up the invasions of East Asia, the Philippines, etc.and the history of racism that was behind American expansion.

Short version: Britain developed as a "Teutonic" country, and subjected foreign lands to colonial rule, arguing that non-white races were not "civilized" thus conquering them was god's design, blah blah blah. Same belief system was carried and re-seeded in the New World as early as 1600's, became deeply entrenched here, was taught in speeches, writings, lectures, as a matter of plain fact, and became part of the culture, which most people just accepted.
This was the era my great grandparents and grandparents grew up in. "It is known...."

Also Teddy was a fraud, a very ambitious conniving sort, born of wealth and the thinking that creates.Made his bones on the Spanish American war in 1898.
In the loud propaganda leading up the war, one of the prominent thinkers of the day declared that Spain had never produced anything of value, conveniently choosing to ignore the Christopher Columbus bit.

Stuff we were never taught in school. Amazing to read.

BobTheSubgenius

(11,578 posts)
16. I have to wonder what stopped the Klan.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 12:53 PM
Apr 2018

They were clearly as bigoted as one could be, and murder was nowhere near outside their "boundaries." Did they really see an internal moral line in the sand? "I'm not a terrible person. I didn't kill them all?"

F me. What a world.

greatbaldeagle

(157 posts)
17. My guess would be prosecutions
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 01:22 PM
Apr 2018

At some point, after decades of relentless work from people seeking justice through protests, lawsuits, and voting, it became possible for them to be prosecuted for their murders. And it didn't necessarily "stop" the Klan. They are clearly in law enforcement and the same ugly pattern of unarmed minorities being killed without prosecutions occurring happens today. But hopefully the relentless work from people seeking justice through protests, lawsuits, and voting will result in prosecutions becoming a reality and my hope is that this will lead to a significant shift in this pattern. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
19. Morris Dees of the Southern Law Poverty Center stopped the Klan.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 03:15 PM
Apr 2018

From Wiki: ( and a book I read about Dees)

In 1987, SPLC won a case against the United Klans of America for the lynching of Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama.The SPLC used an unprecedented legal strategy of holding an organization responsible for the crimes of individual members to help produce a $7 million judgement for the victim's mother. The verdict forced United Klans of America into bankruptcy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Poverty_Law_Center

I want to emphasize....The murder of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama in 1981 was the last recorded lynching in the United States.

1981...!!!!!!

misanthrope

(7,435 posts)
28. I've always considered James Byrd's 1998 murder a de facto lynching
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 06:00 PM
Apr 2018

He was dragged to death behind a pick-up truck on a Texas road. The details of his death are similar to Michael Donald's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd_Jr.

Granted, he wasn't hanged to death but neither was Donald, who was killed in a remote location in a neighboring county. Donald's corpse was then hung from a tree in a Mobile neighborhood.

Byrd's corpse, beaten and somewhat dismembered by the three-mile dragging was dumped in front of an African-American cemetery in a symbolic display.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
29. I remember that. I agree.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 06:29 PM
Apr 2018

I lived in Mobile in late 1980's, and was shocked to realize how recently Mr. Donald had been lynched there.

I was down here for all of 1964, and can still remember the tension in the air. Trump's election has given a lot of racists courage again.

misanthrope

(7,435 posts)
30. Where is "down here?"
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 07:56 PM
Apr 2018

Last edited Sun Apr 15, 2018, 11:13 PM - Edit history (1)

I agree about Trump's election emboldening racists.

I still recall vividly the mood at Mobile's well-attended initial Tea Party protests in April 2009, the people there, the electronic media coverage. For someone who had lived in Mobile for decades and was used to its ways, who knew why a town of such modest size then had three talk radio stations featuring politically conservative programming and why its alternative newspaper hewed right of the mainstream daily, it was too clear.

I'll give you one guess.

ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
20. This paragraph is so appropriate for today
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 03:19 PM
Apr 2018
Few others helped, despite national publicity about what was, at the time, called the “Rosewood riots.” Those who failed to act included the governor of Florida; in fact, he offered to help the county sheriff, who declined assistance. Reassured that the matter had been well handled, the governor headed out for a lazy round of golf.


Playing golf while the world burns

The Blue Flower

(5,451 posts)
26. Before the feature film...
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 05:49 PM
Apr 2018

The local Tallahassee PBS affiliate produced a dramatization of the story. Kenneth Jones was the director. It was timely because the State legislature was debating a bill that would pay financial restoration to the survivors and their descendents. I felt honored to be Assistant Director on that project. And was then thrilled when the bill was passed. The story then made it to the big screen.

mcar

(42,458 posts)
38. I remember when that bill passed
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 08:55 PM
Apr 2018

IIRC, one of the white children whose father was involved in the massacre came before the leg (an old man by then) and bore witness to the atrocities.

raccoon

(31,131 posts)
31. And we think Lidice was so horrible.
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 08:05 PM
Apr 2018

And we think Lidice was so horrible.

Some of the incidents referenced here sound pretty comparable.

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
33. a white mob
Sun Apr 15, 2018, 08:23 PM
Apr 2018

Called trumps base of voters along with excusers of their racism and men and women with the states permission who wear badges and are supposed to 'protect and serve' all of us are continuing to try to wipe out the black race till this day. Then they get pissed off because the black race in ameriKKKa will not die or leave. This is my country also and shamefully admitted I loaned my marksmanship to a racist war in southeast Asia.

I and 50 million SURVIVORS of ameriKKKan genocidal efforts against the AA race are not going anywhere. And all the racist white assholes that don't like that FACT can stuff that where the sun don't shine. I am disgusted with hate based on stupidity about who is superior. White folks ain't, that's all I know and I will be shouting that from the rooftops

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