As protests roil U.S., Florida revisits past

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — On Election Day a century ago, a white mob swept through a tiny Florida citrus town after a black man showed up at the polls to vote. Over two days of terror, the mob set fire to homes and drove black residents from their community.

It was one of the bloodiest days in American political history, with the number of deaths remaining in question — some estimates as high as 60.

That dark episode, until recently largely forgotten, came to be known as the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Riots. Others remember it as a massacre, one of the many acts of racial violence perpetrated against black citizens over the decades.

As the centennial approaches, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has before him a bill that would require schools to do more to highlight the day in their history classes. If signed by the governor, it would order state officials to identify parks, buildings and other facilities that could be renamed in honor of those who died because of the racial hatred that welled up on that day in the tiny community west of Orlando.

State Sen. Randolph Bracy, whose district includes Ocoee, urged the governor to give his blessings to the measure as a way to bring attention to the racial strife not only in the state’s past but also to acknowledge the ongoing tumult spawned by recent police brutality against black people.

“Florida is known for its beautiful beaches and as a vacation destination, but a century ago, and even long after that, Florida was a terrible place to be if you were a black person,” Bracy said.

Before that fateful Election Day on Nov. 2, 1920, the Ku Klux Klan had marched through nearby Orlando to scare the black population away from the polls.

When Mose Norman, an affluent black man, showed up in Ocoee to vote, he was turned away because precinct workers said he hadn’t paid his poll tax. Undeterred, he returned — to be forced out by a group of whites.

“He had the audacity to vote, and to organize the black community to vote,” Bracy said. “And that was too much for white people to handle.”

Soon, a mob went after Norman. When they came upon the home of another affluent black man, Julius “July” Perry, gunfire erupted and Perry was lynched. Violence and flames soon engulfed the community of about 850 people — more than a fourth of them black.

The number of casualties has been difficult to pin down because of a possible cover-up and a scarcity of reliable historical records, according to Paul Ortiz, a history professor at the University of Florida who has written extensively on the massacre.

Like many other race riots, Ortiz said, official records often undercount the number of casualties.

Initial newspaper accounts referred to fewer than 10 people killed, including two whites. However, in the aftermath, an investigation by the NAACP said interviews with townspeople suggested between 30 and 60 black people were killed.