The Harrowing tale of the Rosewood Massacre
OvervieW
The Rosewood massacre was a horrifying display of race based violence. It occurred in Levy County, Florida. Where one woman’s screams led an entire town to be destroyed altering the lives of the residents forever.
Before the massacre
Levy Country had over 3,500 residents, 40% of whom were African American. The county itself was calm with no significant issues between the white and African American population.
The African American residents of the small town Rosewood located in Levy County lived in large homes and had an estimated 300 Acres between each family.
Rosewood was predominantly black with about 350 residents as of 1920. Residents hunted, farmed and successfully lived off the land.
This kind of wealth was rare for African Americans during the Jim Crow Era.
the BEGINNING
Everything changed on January 1st 1923, when Fannie Taylor a resident of Rosewood accused a black man of attacking and raping her.
Sarah Carrier who was working for Fannie Taylor on the morning of the alleged attack and disputed Taylor’s claims.
She claimed she saw a white man leaving Taylor’s house the day prior, not a black man, but because Carrier was black her words didn’t hold much value.
Later that day an angry mob entered the town of Rosewood nearly lynching Aaron Carrier and successfully lynching Sam Carter a blacksmith.
The Escape
Hoping that was the end of the killings, The residents of the town attempted to stick together and wait out the angry mobsters.
Sarah’s son Slyvester got together his relatives and friends to wait it out and after 3 days of calm another group of white men approached the home.
Everyone inside refused to leave promoting the white men to start a shootout. The shootout lasted for several hours and many mobsters were injured.
Sarah and her son died from their injuries with many other people inside injured. After the mob retreated the rest of the family escaped into the swamp land.
The mob came back to Rosewood once again that Friday and set fire to the town killing those who tried to escape including Lexie Gordon a widow in her 50s.
The remaining residents fled into the woods and when James Carrier went back into town he was captured by the white mob and questioned and later prompted him to dig his own grave before they subsequently shot him.
Concerned white neighboring residents made arrangements to assist the women and children, sending word to those hiding that a train would be sent to take only the women and children to safety. The remaining residents of what used to be Rosewood were taken to Gainesville by train with most never setting foot in Rosewood again.
The Movie – ROsewood
A movie about the Rosewood Tragedy was directed by John Singleton in 1997. If you’re looking for a historically accurate representation of the events this movie is for you.
Closing notes
70 years later Minnie Lee, who was just 9 years old at the time of the massacre gave a testimony at the Florida Legislature’s House. Recounting the horrible things she experienced and her life after fleeing.
After listening to hours of testimony from the survivors, their descendants and expert witnesses, and hearing officer Richard Hixson recommended to the Florida legislature that the survivors who sustained emotional trauma be compensated in the amount of $150,000 each. The families who could demonstrate a property loss would finally be compensated.
Rosewood families and their descendants were awarded around 2 million dollars for the 9 living survivors and their descendants.
This is one of the few cases of reparations given to those affected by race based violence, but it won’t fix the traumatic situations they endured, and the losses of those they loved.
Although 100 years ago, what happened at Rosewood was a vicious display of race based violence. The people who passed should be remembered for their bravery and never forgotten.
It’s important to look back at the past to see how these events have shaped our current day America.
This is a well detailed case and with the testimony of Minnie Lee they were able to piece together the story of what truly happened. But let us not forget that there were many other instances of situations like these just undocumented and covered up.
