Despite Governor Catts' change of attitude, white mob action frequently occurred in towns throughout north and central Florida and went unchecked by local law enforcement. Extrajudicial violence was so common that it often did not make the front pages of newspapers.[1] In 1920, whites removed four black men from a local jail and lynched them after they were accused of raping a white woman in Macclenny. In Ocoee the same year, two black citizens armed themselves to go to the polls during an election. A confrontation ensued and two white election officials were shot, after which a white mob destroyed Ocoee's black community, causing as many as 30 deaths, and destroying 25 homes, two churches, and a Masonic Lodge.[14] In the central part of the state, a black man was lynched in 1921 in Wauchula for allegedly attacking a white woman.[15] In December 1922, a white mob burned a black man to death for the murder of a white school teacher in Perry 75 miles (121 km) from Rosewood, and then burned down the black Masonic Lodge and other black institutions, including a school and a church. The Perry lynching was covered on the front page of The Gainesville Daily Sun for a week in December 1922, heightening tensions in the region.[2]
[edit] Events in Rosewood
[edit] Fannie Taylor's story
The Rosewood massacre was provoked when a white woman in Sumner claimed she had been assaulted by a black man. Frances "Fannie" Taylor was 22 years old in 1923 and married to James, a 30-year-old millwright employed by Cummer & Sons. They lived in Sumner, where the mill was located, with their two young children. James' job required him to leave each day during the darkness of early morning. Neighbors remembered Fannie Taylor as "very peculiar". She was meticulously clean, scrubbing her cedar floors with bleach so that they shone white. Other women attested that Taylor was aloof; no one knew her very well.
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