Ocoee massacre

The Ocoee massacre was an act of mass racial violence in November 1920 that saw a white mob attack African-American residents in the northern parts of Ocoee, Florida, a town located in Orange County near Orlando. Ocoee was the home to 255 African-Americans and 560 white residents according to the 1920 Census.^[3] The massacre took place on November 2, the day of the U.S. presidential election, leaving a lasting impact; the 1930 census showed 1,180 whites, 11 Native Americans, and 2 African Americans (0.2%).^[4]

By most estimates, a total of 30–80 black people were killed during what has been considered the "single bloodiest day in modern American political history".^[2] Most African American-owned buildings and residences in northern Ocoee were burned to the ground. Other African Americans living in southern Ocoee were later killed or driven out of town by the threat of further violence being used against them. Thus, Ocoee essentially became an all-white or "sundown" town.

It is believed that the attack was intended to prevent black citizens from voting. Poll taxes had been imposed as de facto disenfranchisement in Florida since the beginning of the 20th century. In Ocoee and across the state, various black organizations had been conducting voter registration drives for a year. Those who registered to vote registered almost exclusively as Republicans because blacks were not permitted to join the all-white Democratic Party.^[5]

A prevailing theory is that the riot and massacre were not caused by white opposition to black voting rights. Instead, it is believed that the Ocoee massacre was fueled by the false rumor that two black men killed two white men who had been acting in the capacity of law enforcement officers. The initial targets of the attack were both prosperous black men. In the South, black wealth fueled economic jealousy among white communities and was a common cause of lynchings and violence against blacks.^[5]

In November 1920, Mose Norman, a prosperous African-American farmer, tried to vote but was turned away. By one account, he was turned away for being black. By another, he was turned away because he had not paid his poll tax. The second account is highly unlikely because Norman was among those working on the voter registration drive, and he and other prosperous black men had paid the poll taxes for other black voters.^[5]

Angered at being turned away at the poll, Norman is rumored to have returned armed with a shotgun and threatened poll workers, but whites beat him up and took his gun away. Norman went to the home of Julius "July" Perry, another well-off black man who owned a home and property in Ocoee, and the two men next visited Republican judge, John M. Cheney, in Orlando, who had assisted them with the voter registration drive. Cheney told Norman and Perry to get the names of the poll workers who denied their vote.^[5]

Seeking to distance himself from the growing tensions and curry favor from whites, a black ex-slave, Burley Jones, spread a false rumor to his former master that armed blacks were gathering at the home of July Perry. This account was believed because its source was a black man. Thereafter, some white Ocoee residents were deputized by Orange County Sheriff Deputy Clyde Pounds and charged with arresting Julius "July" Perry and Mose Norman.^[5]

Two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Leo Borgard, were killed by friendly fire when white resident, Sam T. Salisbury, led a group of white men, likely including Klansmen, to surround July Perry's home. The group fired wildly into the Perry home, killing McDaniels and Borgard, and also wounding Perry and his 19-year-old daughter, Caretha. Norman was not at Perry's home and was able to escape before the mob arrived at his home. Local whites would later report that there were 37 armed blacks at Perry's home when the white citizens arrived. According to Perry's nephew, however, the only people at the Perry home were Perry, his wife, their children, and two hired hands. The sheriff's report and detailed funeral home records confirm that McDaniels and Borgard were killed by the armed white men. Nonetheless, the massacre was fueled by the false rumor that two black men killed two white men who had been acting in the capacity of law enforcement officers.^[5]

Reinforcements from Orlando and Orange County were called upon, contributing to a mob that laid waste to the African-American community in northern Ocoee and eventually lynching Perry,^[6] who was in custody at the Orange County Sheriff's Office, shooting and taking his body to Orlando, where he was hanged from a lightpost to intimidate other black people.^[7] Norman escaped, never to be found. Hundreds of other African Americans fled the town, leaving behind their homes and possessions. The white mobs burned at least twenty-five black-owned homes, two churches, and a black fraternal lodge.^[5]

"Most of the people living in Ocoee don't even know that this happened there", said Pamela Schwartz, chief curator of the Orange County Regional History Center, which sponsored an exhibit on it. For almost a century, many descendants of survivors were not aware of the massacre that occurred in their hometown.^[4]