Today’s thread subject suggested by Nsayne several days ago, will focus on the Rosewood Massacre of 1923..Rosewood was a small community in central Florida, consisting of about 25-30 Black families. Several events led up to the massacre in 1923, including; a lynching of 3 black men accused of raping a white women, a 1921 lynching of a black man accused of attacking a white woman, and a 1922 lynching where a black man was burned to death for allegedly murdering a white school teacher. On January 1, 1923, a white woman named Fannie Taylor claimed a black man broke into her house and attacked her. Although witnesses say the man who guilty of the crime was white, talk around town lead to a black man named Jesse Hunter being falsely accused (Hunter was a prisoner who had escaped from a chain gang). Mobs of local whites were sent out to find Jesse, but they came upon a black man named Sam Carter. He was tortured and shot to death by the Mob for allegedly admitting to sheltering an escaped prisoner.

On January 4th, a black church in Rosewood was burned, and black residents fled to nearby swamps, some only in night clothing. On January 6th, a train evacuated black residents of Rosewood, and took them to Gainesville. The residents who were hiding in swamps, would run to the train when they heard the conductors blow the horn. Fearing any revolts or other attacks from the Mob, the train conductors refused to pick up any men. The next day, a group of about 100-150 white men returned to burn what was left of Rosewood. In February of 1923, a grand jury found there was not enough evidence to prosecute anyone involved.

In 1994, the Florida governor signed a $2.1 million package to compensate the survivors and their descendants for a “blind act of bigotry” that allowed for $150,000 for each of the nine survivors and a $500,000 pool for the descendants to apply for, providing that they could prove they had an ancestor who owned property in Rosewood at the time of the event

..and for anyone who is interested, here’s a short trailer of the movie that was made from this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1i21vbPevU