In January of 1923, over a period of a few days a town was distroyed at the hands of an angry mob. Rosewood, Florida was located near what is now the town of Perry. In January of 1923 the town was largly populated by african-americans. The town had schools, churches and business's, mostly developed and maintained by the african american residents there.
A white woman accused a black resident of Rosewood of rape, as happened alot during that part of our nations history. In response to this accusation an angry mob went into Rosewood, murdered several residents and burned the town to the ground. There was a railroad that ran nearby and some residents were saved by jumping onto the passing trains.
In 1993 a document was prepaired and given to the Florida Board of Regents for review.This document was full of first hand survivor accounts of the attacks on Rosewood that fatefull January. In 1994 the Florida legislature gave a monitary settlement to the survivors and relative's of survivors for the lost land ownership and the distruction of their lives at the time. I don't think this particular incident in history is discussed enough. If you ask most anyone, no matter what their age,would not know where Rosewood, Florida is/was or what happened there. This town and its residents, surviving and dead deserve their place in history and we should never forget the awful things that happened there.
Kate Rudolph
AMH 1041
T-R 10:05 to 11:20 am
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Honestly, I too was unfamiliar with the “Rosewood Massacre.” It is absolutely ridiculous that this topic is not covered more in depth and the victims of this are not compensated with a memorial. Many innocent lives with lost over a lie and apparently the Florida Legislature thinks that a payment could take the pain from losing a loved one away.
Nicole Vuyovich
AMH 1041
T-R 10:05-11:20
It's like anything else in Corporate America; "What things words can't fix, money can", seems to be the policy. I can't say that I disagree with the action however. I mean, what was the Legislature to do? ..Hug the survivors? Would that have been better than a compensatory settlement? The answer here is a resounding, "no". I agree, especially as a Florida native, that this should be more of a staple in our high school history books. But in regard to the legislature's response, I don't see what else could have been done, Nicole. It wasn't even 'this' government's fault. ..in fact, they had nothing to do with it at all. I'd say they went above and beyond, as they would arguably have been justified in turning them away with an apology letter.
Steve Bosserman
AMH 1041
TR 1005-1120
This is the first time I am hearing about this terrible event. I believe the Rosewood Massacre should be discussed more often because this was a devastating time in these people's lives. Just because a woman accused a black man of rape doesn't necessarily mean that it was true, but still no one seemed to care if was true or not they just began to destroy the lives of innocent people.
Janine Yannizze
AMH1041
T-R 10:05-11:20
Janine,
Welcome to the wonderful world of mob thinking. Anytime you have a group of society that hates another group of society enough you're going to have this kind of incident. It didn't matter that the woman was lying- my guess is that this kind of event was going to happen sooner or later- the mob that did this just needed a reason.
As far as anything else that can be done for these people, I really don't see a solution. We could build a memorial, but spending time there is as appealing to me as a picnic at Auschwitz. I guess we could find the descendants and send them something from www.buildabear.com, but I don't know that it would help.
Also, Kate, official reports are that Fannie Taylor stated she was attacked but not raped by a black man.
Jason Herbert
AMH 1041
TR 10:05
Jason, thanx for the clarification..
Kate Rudolph
AMH 1041
I agree with the comments left here. There should have been more that covered this topic. The matter of money is ridiculous, and should have been handled differently. There could have been better steps taken altogether.
Nicole Cass
AMH1041 TR 1005a
I never knew anything about Rosewood, Florida. I think we should have a class that cover the history of the state people live in. It's a shame how people back in the days use to lie on others.
Annie Lawrence
AMH1041
TR 1005a-1120a
I am not suprised that people have not heard of the Rosewood Massacre, there is nothing but small sign labeling the town and I have never heard of anyone being taught about it in school, this event was never even brought to my attention by anyone I knew personally. The rapper Lil' Wayne refrenced it in one of his songs and it sparked my interest.
Crystal Cash
AMH 1041
TR 10:05
Post a Comment