#ocoee massacre

[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.

[thoughtportal]

Ocoee massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocoee_massacre

[tomorrowusa]

Ron DeSantis and his Florida GOP machine want schools in the state to teach that slavery was beneficial.

The curriculum includes framing labor skills African Americans developed while enslaved as potentially ‘applied for their personal benefit.’ Florida’s newly adopted K-12 curriculum for African American history is drawing censure from community leaders, elected officials and the state’s largest education organization for what they complain is a glossing over of shameful chapters in America’s past. [ ... ] Critics, however, argued the curriculum — which includes framing labor skills slaves developed as potentially “applied for their personal benefit” and a disproportionate conflation of violence against Black citizens with violence by them — as a “big step backward.” “How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from?” said Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest union with more than 150,000 members. “Florida’s students deserve a world-class education that equips them to be successful adults who can help heal our nation’s divisions rather than deepen them, (and they) deserve the full truth of American history, the good and the bad.”

According to DeSantis rubber stamp Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., slavery produced a lot of great skills in people.

For pre-Civil War lessons, middle school students must be taught “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” per a new benchmark clarification.

The new DeSantis curriculum partly blames the victims of past crimes.

The curriculum also notes that high school teachings about several instances of mass killings, including the 1920 Ocoee Massacre in which a White mob murdered at least 30 African Americans for attempting to vote, should include instruction on “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” “That’s blaming the victim,” said Orlando Democratic Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who worked to pass a 2020 law requiring instruction about the Ocoee Massacre.

Republicans apparently don't want the snowflake descendants of slaveholders and KKK sympathizers to feel sad.

The DeSantis whitewashing of history is part of his overall plan to pander to the far right in order to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. It tells us a lot about the current state of the Republican Party and the extremists whose opinions hold sway within the GOP.

[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.

[nittygrittydirtman]

Field Trip, Part 2: Ocoee, FL

Leaving Weeki Wachee, Joe and I drove on a four-lane divided highway that cuts through or comes very close to some of Central Florida’s smaller towns. Our goal was to reach an entrance to Florida’s Turnpike, near Orlando, so we could head southeast and then eventually get onto I-95 southbound. As we reached the far western fringe of the Orlando area, we saw a sign for Ocoee. I had become obsessed…

[soberscientistlife]

The dark day in Florida's history escalated after one Black citizen tried to exercise his right to vote at a polling location but was turned away on Election Day.

Mose Norman, who had been part of the voter registration drive in Orange County, decided to vote in the national election on November 2. When he attempted to do so, twice, he was turned away from the polls. When Norman was driven away the second time, a white mob, then numbering over 100 men, decided to hunt him down. Concluding he had taken refuge in the home of another local Black resident, Julius “July” Perry, they rushed Perry’s home hoping to capture both men there. Norman escaped and was never found while Perry defended his home, killing two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Leo Borgard, who tried to enter through the back door. The mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and surrounding Orange County. Eventually they caught and killed Perry and hung his dead body from a telephone post by the highway from Ocoee to Orlando to intimidate other potential Black voters. Perry’s wife, Estelle Perry, and their daughter were wounded during the attack on the Perry home. They were sent to Tampa by local law enforcement officers. The mob then turned on the Black community of Ocoee. Homes and properties of Black families were scorched, burnt to the ground. At least four Black individuals were confirmed killed -- one of which was lynched, his body hanging from a tree limb for all to see.

On June 21, 2019, a historical marker honoring July Perry and others killed in the massacre was placed in Heritage Square outside the Orange County

Source: African Archives

[anarchywoofwoof]

florida now has to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery because they learned valuable job skills. this is a real thing.

Much of the scrutiny surrounds a particular standard requiring middle school students to learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” But there are also objections to lessons that classify acts of violence perpetrated “against and by” African Americans, like the Ocoee Massacre of 1920, when a white crowd burned Black homes and churches to the ground and killed Black residents in a small Florida town enraged by a Black man attempting to vote.

this is the reason that conservatives want to control school boards and local legislatures. this will be national policy in 2024 if they're permitted to exert their will.

[beardedmrbean]

Nunya can you explain this Twitter meme? https://x.com/AmericanaEthos/status/1726098935662719272?s=20

Like, I black and went to predominantly black schools. And they couldn’t stfu about civil rights and slavery.

Like no poor, marginalized, or even working class American think our country is perfect. Is wrong to believe this leftists memes are very classist? Our textbook acknowledges the terrible ( that career politicians allowed minus their own evil shit) constantly.

Did these marxists sleep through history class? Like, American slavery is the only type of slavery talk about in school that I had a little mid fuck after getting online and learning about the Dahomey.

I legitimately don't know who the not Superman dude is, but I can guess given the context here.

I think you're probably right about them having slept through every US history class they ever took.

I learned "Trail of Tears" in elementary school, same with slavery, and a few other of the less than savory parts of US history then as the years wore on the lessons got more and more involved and graphic since watching "Roots" in 2nd grade is a good way to traumatize kids so you know they moved in a more age appropriate direction.

I feel like the majority of the people that do this kind of meme fall in to a few different categories.

Not American and ignorant of what is taught here beyond what they see on twitter (things like Texas/Florida won't be teaching about slavery) and they're trying for viral fame.

Slept through history and got lots of F's as a result.

Didn't sleep through history and have selective memory

Did well in history, but don't feel like the subject was given enough attention.

Which is a valid opinion but people need to realize that there's only so much time to teach these things because other things need to be taught as well. So be glad that unlike me you have easy access to all of the information in the world you could want and you can learn more on your own.

They teach the history warts and all, you're likely to hear about Rosa Parks, Emmet Till, Ruby Bridges, and the Tulsa race massacre.

Rosewood massacre, Ocoee massacre, various tests before you could vote

This one is pretty easy so far. (just saw a longer version, it gets complicated)

Louisiana one here on the other hand... You got this if you couldn't prove at least a 5th grade education. 5th grader that passes this should directly to MIT.

very few people regardless of race are gonna be doing well on this.

But ya if we're doing racial issues it's all taught, most all at least. How much time did you see get spent on the people that built the railroads, the majority of whom if it was going west to east were Chinese and east to west Irish and all of whom were treated as disposable.

The 'if you die I can hire another man, but I gotta buy another mule' attitude.

Fuck I'm in CA and we did not spend a whole lot of time on that one, mostly that it was dangerous work and lots of people died.

I think at this point the best response you could give someone that makes or posts a tweet like that would be

"your abject failure to learn as a student does not mean the information wasn't taught"

(If you feel like hurting your brain I'm gonna link a few of the "literacy" tests)

Mississippi (not terrible)

Louisiana (whole thing, good luck)

Alabama (starts out easy enough, didn't skim too far so might turn incredibly difficult)

If you do any of these let me know how you did please, these things are insane. _________________

Hope this wasn't too long winded, tried to keep it mostly brief

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Middle school students in Florida will soon be taught that slavery gave Black people a “personal benefit” because they “developed skills.”

After the Florida Board of Education approved new standards for African American history on Wednesday, high school students will be taught an equally distorted message: that a deadly white mob attack against Black residents of Ocoee, Florida, in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

Dozens of Black residents were killed in the massacre, which was perpetrated to stop them from voting.

According to members of the board, that distorted portrayal of the racist massacre is factually accurate. MaryLynn Magar, a member of the board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said at the board’s meeting in Orlando on Wednesday that “everything is there” in the new history standards and “the darkest parts of our history are addressed,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

The majority of the speakers who provided public testimony on the planned curriculum were vehemently opposed to it, warning that crucial context is omitted, atrocities are glossed over, and in some cases students will be taught to “blame the victim.”

“I am very concerned by these standards, especially some of the notion that enslaved people benefited from being enslaved,” state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) said, per Action News Jax.

“When I see the standards, I’m very concerned,” state Sen. Geraldine Thompson said at the board meeting. “If I were still a professor, I would do what I did very infrequently; I’d have to give this a grade of ‘I’ for incomplete. It recognizes that we have made an effort, we’ve taken a step. However, this history needs to be comprehensive. It needs to be authentic, and it needs additional work.”

“When you look at the history currently, it suggests that the [Ocoee] massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans. That’s blaming the victim,” the Democrat warned.

“Please table this rule and revise it to make sure that my history, our history, is being told factually and completely, and please do not, for the love of God, tell kids that slavery was beneficial because I guarantee you it most certainly was not,” community member Kevin Parker said.

Approval of the new standards is a win for the DeSantis administration, which has effectively sought to create a new educational agenda that shields white students from feeling any sense of guilt for wrongs perpetrated against people of color. The Florida Governor signed the “Stop WOKE Act” last year to do just that, restricting how issues of race are taught in public schools and workplaces.

In keeping with the administration’s crusade against “wokeness,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz defended the new standards against criticism, saying, “This is an in-depth, deep dive into African American history, which is clearly American history as Governor DeSantis has said, and what Florida has done is expand it,” Action News Jax reported.

Paul Burns, the Florida Department of Education’s chancellor of K-12 public schools, also insisted the new standards provide an exhaustive representation of African American history.

“Our standards are factual, objective standards that really teach the good, the bad and the ugly,” he was quoted as saying Wednesday by Florida Phoenix. He denied the new standards portray slavery as beneficial.

Although education officials say teachers are meant to expand upon the new curriculum in the classroom, critics say teachers are unlikely to do that for fear of being singled out and possibly punished for being too “woke.”

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, called the new standards “a big step backward for a state that has required teaching African American history since 1994” in a statement after Wednesday’s vote.

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, also condemned the new curriculum, saying in a statement: “Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for.”

“Today’s actions by the Florida state government are an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected. It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history. We refuse to go back,” he said.

[itsmythang]

103 years ago on November 2-3, during Election Day in 1920, the single bloodiest day in modern America political history happened, The Ocoee Massacre. A black man attempted to vote & the Ku Klux Klan responded with rampage that led to the exile/death of every black person that lived there —The dark day in Florida's history escalated after one Black citizen tried to exercise his right to vote at a polling location but was turned away on Election Day.

Mose Norman, who had been part of the voter registration drive in Orange County, decided to vote in the national election on November 2. When he attempted to do so, twice, he was turned away from the polls. When Norman was driven away the second time, a white mob, then numbering over 100 men, decided to hunt him down.

Concluding he had taken refuge in the home of another local Black resident, Julius “July” Perry, they rushed Perry’s home hoping to capture both men there. Norman escaped and was never found while Perry defended his home, killing two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Leo Borgard, who tried to enter through the back door. The mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and surrounding Orange County.

Eventually they caught and killed Perry and hung his dead body from a telephone post by the highway from Ocoee to Orlando to intimidate other potential Black voters. Perry’s wife, Estelle Perry, and their daughter were wounded during the attack on the Perry home. They were sent to Tampa by local law enforcement officers. The mob then turned on the Black community of Ocoee. Homes and properties of Black families were scorched, burnt to the ground.

At least four Black individuals were confirmed killed -- one of which was lynched, his body hanging from a tree limb for all to see. On June 21, 2019, a historical marker honoring July Perry and others killed in the massacre was placed in Heritage Square outside the Orange County Regional History Center.

[ausetkmt]

'Loss of generational wealth': How the Ocoee massacre forced out Black residents

[protoslacker]

It is poignant to realize that Du Bois appeared to have had measured optimism concerning the progress of the black population and the march towards greater equality. These hopes were dashed in the decades to come as an ever-more aggressive Jim Crow regime took hold to enforce segregation and discrimination — in housing, schooling, employment, and voting rights. Lynchings and brutal race riots continued, culminating in horrific events like the Ocoee Massacre of blacks in Florida in 1920 and the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. Citizens Councils, the Ku Klux Klan, and ordinary citizens made “long, slow progress” no longer a viable pathway towards racial equality. What parts of this story can now be told honestly and forthrightly in classrooms in Florida today? Now more than ever we need truth-speaking about our historical pasts, and yet now more than ever white supremacist elected officials are seeking to silence the truth.

Daniel Little at Understanding Society. W.E.B. Du Bois' stunning modernist data graphics

W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America  by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert

[eaudrey35]

I live n Florida and I have been trying to hold my tongue on the Jacksonville racist shooting. But I can't because u got ppl who want to distract by being up black o black crime numbers. Because ppl r saying and many blacks r saying Ron DeSantis Donald Trump and many Republicans Rhetoric and policy's brought this on and it did. Governor DeSantis war on woke black history being taught n Florida school his ban on the faux boggy man CRT all played apart. His rhetoric of Florida being the place where Woke goes to die. His firing of black elected officials all played apart. Do ppl realize that Neo Nazis membership is thriving n Florida. Ur rhetoric and policies play a big part of enabling ppl. DeSantis policies and rhetoric has enabled emboldened many of this stuff n Florida and giving money isn't going to clean it up either. Florida has a rich history n racism from Ocoee Massacre to Rosewood to stuff I have been told by my grandparents and parents and I am 48 lived n Florida my whole life Florida racist history something else.

[realjaysumlin]

The Ocoee Massacre: A Documentary Film | WFTV

The ugly, the bad and the evil. The continuing harmful effects of colorism and scientific racism. We can't ignore the serious harms of Christianity against Black Indigenous People globally.

[petervintonjr]

I am resharing a prior lesson (originally posted Feb. 7 of this year) and its accompanying artwork, since it has taken on new relevance in current headlines. Please recirculate and repost, as you deem appropriate:

[itsbansheebitch]

"The second main target of recent criticism — the mention of 'violence perpetrated against and by African Americans' — occurs in a section of the standards focused on Black communities since Reconstruction. It cites the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, the 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre." - Tampa Bay Times

WOW that sure is a lot of massacres! I wonder why someone would resist that! Sure is a MYSTERY.

Seriously, what's next, "Hitler wasn't sooooo bad" "Unit 731 was finnneeee actually" "School shootings build characteeerrrr" ????? As someone who had a teacher who not so low-key supported slavery in 6th grade in Tennessee, this shit make me SEETHE

When are people going to figure out that CTR is just accurate history? When are we going to be taught about Heartbreak Day in school? We aren't even taught about Unit 731 in school, which was happening at the SAME TIME as WW2???? I learned about Unit 731 THIS YEAR. I am OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL