#July Perry

[ausetkmt]

OCOEE, Fla. (AP) — A central Florida town where dozens of African-Americans were massacred and a black neighborhood was burned down almost 100 years ago is renouncing its racist past.

Ocoee city commissioners plan to issue a proclamation Tuesday acknowledging the 1920 attack on the black community in that caused African-Americans to move away for decades.

The proclamation renounces the city’s past as “a sundown town,” a place where African-Americans could be endangered if they were in city limits after sunset. The Orlando Sentinel reports the proclamation reads: “Let it be known that Ocoee shall no longer be known as a sundown city but the sunrise city with the bright light of harmony, justice and prosperity shining upon all our citizens.”

George Oliver, who this year became the first African-American elected to the Ocoee City Commission, said it’s time to let people know that Ocoee has evolved.

“If you were black, you didn’t want to go through here, day or night, but if you had to, you made sure if at all possible that you got out of town before the sun went down,” Oliver said. “That’s changed. It’s time we let people know.”

In 1920, a white mob attacked Ocoee’s black community after African-Americans attempted to vote. The mob surrounded the home of July Perry, set fire to Perry’s neighborhood and massacred dozens of black residents. The mob lynched Perry in nearby Orlando.

After the massacre, about 500 black residents fled Ocoee, leaving behind their homes and possessions. Ocoee had no black residents until the 1980, according to the U.S. census.

African-Americans now make up about a fifth of the town’s 46,000 residents, and Hispanics represent under a quarter of the population, according to the census.

Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson accompanied a group of central Florida residents to the April opening of a national lynching memorial and museum in Montgomery, Alabama. He said the memorial moved him.

“It sends chills down your back,” Johnson said.

Perry’s 79-year-old granddaughter, Gladys Franks Bell, said she never thought she’d live to see official recognition of the tragic event by town officials. Her then-teenage father and his siblings escaped Ocoee by hiding in woods and swampy wetlands.

“None of my family has ever forgotten,” Bell said. “It’s time for other people to remember.”

[joe-england]

Florida town, students resist letting state’s war on Black history be fo...

[petervintonjr]

Long one today. And it is not going to be an easy read, so decide now.

In the weeks leading up to the November 2, 1920 elections, the small unincorporated Florida town of Ocoee, just northwest of Orlando, saw an alarming uptick in parades of white supremacists' marches and rallies, vowing that no Black citizen would be permitted to vote. Sure enough, on November 2 many determined Black citizens did indeed turn up at polling places and were barred from entering on one flimsy Jim Crow pretext or another; and in many instances where they did enter, found their names "mysteriously" absent from registration rolls. Not everyone was so easily dissuaded, and a lawsuit was filed against the County that very day by one Mose Norman, a well-to-do orange grove owner. Norman returned from Orlando later that afternoon after having met with Judge John M. Cheney, an aspiring Senate candidate who was himself a strong advocate for Black voter registration. Judge Cheney instructed Norman to return to Ocoee and collect the names of every Black citizen who had not been permitted to vote and to also record the names of each and every poll worker who had denied them. Mose Norman did so and defiantly decreed, "We will vote, by God!"

The response from the Ku Klux Klan and their Dixiecrat apologists/fanboys was predictable and immediate: over the next two days more than 25 homes, the masonic lodge, a school, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church would be burned to the ground --some with people still inside. In total an estimated 56 Black people would be brutally murdered, and an entire Black population essentially purged, not only from the town itself but very nearly from historical memory.

One of the first people to be murdered by the mob was Julius "July" Perry, a longtime friend of Norman; another well-to-do farm owner, and a respected local labor leader and church deacon, known for aggressively speaking out on behalf of Blacks to be educated, and to stand up for themselves as full and first-class citizens. In an essay Ocoee On Fire by Jason Byrne, Perry is described as a "civil rights leader before there was a civil rights movement." Having been identified by an angry white mob as an "instigator," Norman Mose had fled to Perry's home but unfortunately the mob soon twigged to Mose's whereabouts and surrounded Perry's home. The ringleader, a former Orlando police officer named Sam Salisbury, was the first to force his way into the house. Unfortunately the specifics of the confrontation are widely conflicting, which of course muddies an honest reckoning of events even decades later. Perry's wife and children, also cornered in the house, defended themselves --in particular his daughter Coretha swung a rifle into Salisbury's stomach, which (apocryphally) then fired and prompted hails of bullets from both inside and outside the house. Two of the mob were killed as they tried to force their way into the back door, and July and Coretha were both wounded, but in the confusion Perry's family managed to escape. By then the word had gone out and additional Klan had descended on the small town in more than 50 cars, having arrived from surrounding counties and towns. The so-called "local militia," curiously populated by more outsiders than actual locals, organized a manhunt and Perry was soon arrested. Later that evening a lynch mob descended on the county jail where Perry was being held, and local sheriff Frank Gordon promptly handed over the keys to his cell.

The following morning Perry's beaten and bullet-ridden body, having allegedly been dragged through the streets by vigilantes, was found hanging from a telephone pole near the entrance to the Orlando Country Club --in easy view from the front of Judge Cheney's home. The message was clear. Perry's body was quietly interred in an unmarked grave until 2002, when a local movement finally deduced his remains' location and at last moved him to a memorial grave at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando.

In a weirdly uncharacteristic (and frankly suspicious) reversal of the present-day imperative that is currently being pushed by Florida education officials, a law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis requiring that the Ocoee Election Day Massacre be taught in Florida schools. A section of State Route 438 has been renamed July Perry Highway, and historic markers have been placed and dedicated. Perhaps the most significant landmark, though, is Perry's gravesite itself --traditionally after every election, scores of voters drop by to affix their "I Voted" stickers to the headstone.

View The Truth Laid Bare, a 12-minute video produced by the University of Central Florida, about the Ocoee Massacre.

[popping-your-culture]

The Daily Katy 🇺🇸🧨🎇🎆

[final-destination-headcanons]

Some neurodivergent headcanons I have:

Tod: Dyslexia and ADHD

Billy: autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia

Alex: autism, OCD, anxiety

Clear: autism

Tim: ADHD

Rory: autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia

Ashley: dyslexia

Erin: autism, anxiety, depression

Ian: autism, ADHD, depression

Perry: anxiety

Julie: dyslexia and ADHD

Kevin: ADHD

Wendy: autism, anxiety

canon for all of them tbh-

Wendy is so me!!!

[hldailyupdate]

Louis liked Perrie Edwards’ post on Instagram! (7 July 2023)

x

[littlemixdaily]

perrieedwards: So this is Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving?! Thank you so much for all the birthday love & wishes! Feeling so blessed and content at 30!🥰

[d-criss-news]

Carol Burnett's Birthday Special 2023 - Darren Criss Edit (04-26-23)

Video edit of Darren Criss at the Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love Special which aired on April 26th, 2023.

[jellifeeesh]

Hot girl summer ❌️

Glass Animals summer ✅️

[ausetkmt]

The 100th Anniversary of the Ocoee, Florida Election Day Massacre

The state of Florida has recently mandated a law requiring that public schools and state institutions teach the history of the Ocoee Massacre. 

What happened in Ocoee, Florida in 1920? How do the tragic events that transpired in Orange County intersect with the broader histories of the African American freedom struggle as well as today’s efforts at historical truth and reconciliation in the age of Black Lives Matter? 

Paul Ortiz will draw from his book Emancipation Betrayed as well as more than 20 years of involvement in local history initiatives in Ocoee. 

Paul Ortiz is an American historian and professor of history at the University of Florida. He is also the Director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and has published numerous works, including Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Jim Crow South and Emancipation Betrayed. 

This event is funded by the Florida Humanities Florida Talks: At Home! program.

[legendofthe3divas]

Jade at London Pride today 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

[muppetydyke]

one day I will write an essay comparing the existence of Julie Andrews Cookie Monster Big Spender to the huge scandal that happened when Katy Perry wore a low cut dress and they cut her song on Sesame Street, because I think it’s pretty representative of a cultural shift that’s happened since the 70s

[singinprincess]

TIMESTAMP ROULETTE 🕒 @fvmos requested Go On 1.04

[aprill-99]

Character A: “I see no evil. I refuse. I will be good and loyal and optimistic if it kills me.”

Character B: “Hey guys! Did you miss me? The clear villain/morally ambiguous recurring character?”

Character A: “…..”

Character A: “I consent to seeing one (1) evil.”

[littlemixdaily]

July 18, 2023

[thedailyplatypics]

He