HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-25-2020 Supporting Documents 'V
• 1111$4,-
Ocoee
florida
Meeting Outline
Commission Conference Room 109
150 N.Lakeshore Drive
Ocoee,Florida
June 17,2020
MEETING COMMENCED AT 4:00 PM
Attendance: Past Chair Kathleen Crown
Chair Elect William"Bill"Maxwell
Mayor Johnson
Assistant City Manager Craig Shadrix
Assistant Director of Support Service Doug Gaines
City Clerk Sibbitt
Business for Discussion:
City staff was briefed on the logistics of the 1920 Memorial Event Program as was discussed in
previous HRDB sub-committee meetings. Below are the highlights of the discussion:
• Proposed Ceremony Date, Time, and Location
• Keepsakes Proposed to be Provided
• Speakers to be Invited
• CDC Guidelines
This meeting was called for discussion and input.No formal actions were taken. At the conclusion
of the meeting,it was shared that a Special Session Meeting of the HRDB should be called to have
the board fmalize the event details.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:00 PM
o-
Ocoee's 1920 Race Riot
Prepared by the City of Ocoee Human Relations and Diversity Board August 2018
In the years after World War I the United States experienced an increase in
racial violence. The Ku Klux Klan increased its membership to record levels in the
early 1920s and lynching became more common. In August of 1925 33,000 Klan
members marched down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White.House. In the
summer of 1919 race riots broke out in Washington, D.C., Knoxville, Tennessee,
Longview, Texas, Omaha,Nebraska, and most dramatically in Chicago, Illinois. In
the Chicago riot alone 23 blacks and 15 whites were killed and another 500 people
injured. Altogether approximately 25 riots occurred during what was called the
'Red Summer.'
In 1920, black residents in the Ocoee area owned land and businesses and
were eager to vote. Despite a terrorizing Ku Klux Klan march through the Orlando
streets on October 30, 1920, Mose Norman and other African Americans attempted
to vote. They were turned away. After seeking advice from Orlando Judge John
Cheney,Norman again attempted to vote. Armed whites stationed at the polls
—� immediately assaulted him. Reportedly he fled to the home of his friend and
business comrade, July Perry. Perry was a successful labor broker, organizing
black workers for the white farmers and grove owners in the area. His success may
have caused some poorer whites to resent him. A mob, seeking to capture Perry
and Norman, surrounded and attacked Perry's home. Perry suffered a severe wound
during the raid and was arrested and jailed. The next morning, November 3, 1920,
a lynch mob took Perry from his cell, beat him severely, and hanged him at the
entrance of the Orlando Country Club. His lifeless body was shot repeatedly. Mobs
of white men from surrounding cities traveled to the northern quarters of Ocoee to
join local white citizens in torching the homes and businesses of black residents.
For two days the mob burned 25 black homes, two black churches, and a masonic
lodge. Reports of black residents killed in the violence range from six to over 30
casualties. Survivors fled, never to return; the black community of Ocoee was
forced out.
In the following years Ocoee was known as a"sunset town."Black citizens
were allowed to work in the groves and on the farms in the area, and worked as
domestic servants in some homes, but all blacks had to be out of town by sunset.
__i
This racial discrimination continued with little change until the civil rights
movement of the 1960s began to change attitudes. The coming of Disney World
brought new people to the area with more diverse backgrounds. Today's Ocoee
residents make up 37 different ethnicities and 27% of the town's employees are
ethnic minorities. The terrible winter freeze of 1988 wiped out many of the area's
citrus groves, changing the local economy. Modern Ocoee boasts black, Asian and
Hispanic business owners, and three blocks from the city's historic First Christian
Church is a well-attended mosque. On August 13, 2018 George Oliver was elected
as the city's first African-American city commissioner. An ambitious reinventing
of the downtown streetscape has begun, blending the feel of small town America
with modern public services. Gradually the leaders and citizens of Ocoee,people
of many races, are making deliberate efforts to acknowledge the city's tragic past
and to encourage a brighter future for all its citizens.
Assignment
The terrible events in Ocoee in 1920 were sparked by the efforts of a black citizen
to exercise his constitutional right to vote. Examine the documents that follow and
analyze what other factors may have played a role in causing the tragic outburst of
racial violence in the city.
2
— o
Document A
Dorothy Parrish,A Guide to Local Historical Research,A Research Project Presented to the College of
Education,Florida technological University(UCF)undated
It cannot be confirmed that Judge Cheney and other republicans were trying
to register Ocoee's Negroes. But there can be little doubt that the two leading
members of Ocoee's black community, M.L. (Mose)Norman and July Perry, were
doing so... Both men were labor contractors. In addition, Perry was foreman for a
large grove and there was some resentment among the white community because
black workers, when given a choice between a white employer and Perry, would
choose to work for Perry.
Document B
Joy Wallace Dickson, "Gravestone Part of Healing Process,"Orlando Sentinel,October 28,2002
The riot was a part of a bloody wave of racial violence that swept America
in the 1920s, after World war I. More than 365,000 black men served their country
in the great War, and many came home determined to be more than third class
citizens—behind white women, voting for the first time in 1920.
In Orange County, two white Republicans received a warning letter from the
Florida Ku Klux Klan a few weeks before the election. "We shall always enjoy
white supremacy in this country, and he who interferes must face the
consequences," it ended. •
The Saturday night before Election Day, the KKK marched through
Orlando streets "500 strong," the next day's newspaper reported.
3
Document C
Joy Wallace Dickinson,"Klan pervaded politics in 1920s Florida,"Orlando sentinel,February 5,2001
But in the South especially, the (black) veterans returned to a segregated
society stamped with the heritage of slavery. In 1920, Florida was heating up with
the land fever that would double Orlando's population in the next five years.New
Floridians came, but the grip of the Solid South still clutched much of the state and
didn't let go for a long time.
Backing its power were laws designed to disenfranchise black people by
devices such as the so-called"lily-white primary." One-party rule ensured the
Democratic primary decided most elections, Blacks were told "white voters only."
•
Document D
Carlee Hoffman and Claire Strom, "A Perfect Storm:The Ocoee Riot of 1920,"The Florida Historical
Quarterly,volume 93 Summer 2014
The riot in Ocoee was part of a spate of racial conflicts throughout the nation
in the immediate post-World war I era. All of these riots were characterized by
underlying factors, which fueled racial tensions, and by sparks that ignited the
violence. Underlying factors included economic, political, or social phenomena of
the postwar world. Ocoee is no exception in that the social, economic, and political
circumstances preceding the event resembled those of other race riots of the time.
The impetus for violence in most race riots, on the other hand, was typically
allegations of a crime committed by a black person against a white person. In this
respect Ocoee was unique, as its spark was largely political: blacks attempting to
vote, a precursor to violence that is most readily associated with the America of the
1960s.
4
Document E
James R.Fleming, Sr. "Orange County's Race Riot,November 2-3, 1920,Ocoee,Florida:A view
through the eyes of James Robert Fleming, Sr. a grandson of Samuel Trowbridge Salisbury,the man who
was wounded by the first shot in 'The Ten Hour Riot.' "2002
I have ben asked many times, "What caused the riot?" This is my opinion.
The Europeans feared the Negroes, and the Negroes feared the Europeans. The
Negroes did not trust the Europeans, and the Europeans did not trust the Negroes.
The Europeans did not respect the Negroes, and the Negroes had to comply with
the Jim Crow laws and the KKK. Negroes had a difficult time voting because the
elections were controlled by the White Voters Executive Committee until 1950.
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been passed in 1870, but
Congress did not enact legislation until 1964 and 1965 as a result of Dr. Marlin
Luther King, Jr.'s efforts. Mr. July Perry and Mr. Mose Norman had a labor
brokerage business and controlled the labor market. They were extracting large
percentages of the crops' value to harvest the crops and get them to market. They
also took ten percent of the Negro worker's wages as a commission.
Document F
Nancy Maguire,A History of Ocoee and Its Pioneers,Ocoee Historical Commission,from an interview
with Sam Salisbury
There is thought to have been two leading Orange county Republicans
conducting "secret" meetings with the Negroes of the area in order to prepare them
to vote in the November election. These "secret"meetings had been held in a
negro church in the "Northern Quarters." The voting precinct of Ocoee has always
been steadfastly and predominantly Democratic in its voting habit
On a Saturday night some two months prior to the riot there had been an area
dance at Clarcona.Most of the white men and their wives had gone by railroad
section car to the dance. During the absence a gang of roving negroes went from
white residence to white residence, apparently with the intention of intimidating
the remaining white people...Two days later three prominent white men of the
town held a conference with their counterparts in the Negro community. At that
• 5
time the Negroes were informed that this was inflammatory conduct andtif they
contemplated violence in the future, some initial success might be achieved, but
that in the long run the Negro would suffer greatly...
The racial atmosphere was further clouded by the actions of the negroes at
the stores on Saturday nights. There were only three small grocery stores in town,
and the negroes would congregate in such numbers that this virtually precluded the
whites entering these establishments. Much of the Negro trade in these stores based
on credit, and the owners were reluctant to clear the negroes out for fear they
would get mad and not pay.
Document G
Nancy Maguire,A History of Ocoee and Its Pioneers,Ocoee Historical Commission,statement by Hoyle
pounds, son of J.R.Pounds
...The little town was now filled with outsiders, some of whom had come in
response to a call for reinforcements od Ocoee's small white community. Others
had come for excitement; still others, militantly anti-Negro, had come to exact
vengeance against any black person who could be found.
6