WEBVTT - Special Series: The Election Day Massacre, Part 1 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:03.360 As we draw closer to June tenth. On June nineteenth, 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.600 the anniversary of the day when enslaved people in Texas 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.600 were emancipated two and a half years after the Emancipation 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.240 Proclamation was signed, we offer a remarkable story of the 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.480 black residents of a small town in Florida who fought 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.840 for their right to vote a century ago. This three 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.680 part limited series is brought to you by Procter and Gamble. 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.639 Procter and Gamble believes that words alone won't create change, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.560 but stories do seek share and expect the whole truth 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.480 of black life. Widen the screen to widen our view. 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.519 One hundred years ago, in the center of Florida, just 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.320 a few miles from where Disney World stands today, there 0:00:51.520 --> 0:01:00.960 was an exodus. Hundreds of black families filed their children 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.640 into wagons. They trudged all night along roads and railroad 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.760 tracks and through sugarcane fields. They barely escapped with their lives. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:13.039 Dozens of their loved ones did not. They were lynched, shot, 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:21.840 burned to death in the wreckage of their own homes. Today, 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.520 this is forgotten, largely missing from history books, handed down 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:29.080 only as a secret memory between generations of the families 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.319 who escaped. But in nineteen that November nine, the town 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.399 of Okoe, Florida wasn't a secret. It made headlines around 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.720 the world. There was a grand jury investigation, even a 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.240 hearing before Congress, and Americans, black and white, knew exactly 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.559 why it had happened. They knew what it meant. This 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.920 exodus was a warning to any black citizen who dared 0:01:53.000 --> 0:02:05.760 to try to vote. Yeah, I'm Eugene S. Robinson and 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:20.040 this is the election day massacre from Assie media. In 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:24.559 two thousand and twelve, Randolph Bracy became the first representative 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.600 from a new state House district in central Florida. Less 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.040 than one sixth of the members of the Florida House 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:34.560 were black. I I was looking for office space after 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.919 I won my election, and I had recently moved to Koe, 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.359 and I decided to put my office in o Koe. 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.680 Koe is just a dozen miles from Disney World, but 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.840 it still has the feel of a small town. It's 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:51.440 a pretty lake, splash park for the kids, beloved ice 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.600 cream stand, the perfect place to live and work. And 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.880 I remember it was an African American woman, older woman, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.519 and she almost lost it. One I sold I was 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.640 moving my office to Koe. But she was from the 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.280 age where she the era where she remembered that it 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.520 was a sundown town where you couldn't be in Okoe 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.800 unless you had some business and you had to be 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.280 going before dark. Bracy, now a Florida State Senator, was shocked, 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.760 but many people who live in the area longer or not. 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:28.600 Historian Marvin Dunn is Professor Emeritus at Florida International University. 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:32.840 He grew up in central Florida. My father told us, 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.520 told me and my brothers about picking oranges in in Okoe. 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.360 When they would leave to come back to the land, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.040 so driver of the white driver at Lndridge until almost dark, 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.040 they would walk out of Okoe rather than be caught 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.880 there after Darkkoe is a diverse community today, and it 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.760 had a thriving black population long ago, But for half 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:58.600 a century a Coe had almost no black residence. But 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.920 this was in the ninety late nineties, and they told me, 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:05.200 please don't tell anyone that you're coming here, that we've 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.280 invited you here, that we're showing you where the black 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.600 communities used to be. Paul Orts is a professor of 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.280 history at the University of Florida. Don't tell anyone because 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.640 it could put your life in jeopardy. It could put 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.080 us in jeopardy. There are good reasons why no black 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.920 person wants to live there for so many years. A 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.560 Koe resident and community historian pam La Grady, you can 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.400 see that's what happened there. You can feel that energy there. 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:34.159 It's still it's still alive and well. What happened in 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.480 a Koe a century ago remains the worst incident of 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.560 election day violence in US history. What happened in a 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.320 Koe was not an altercation. It was more than a 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.160 lynching or shooting or riot. What happened in a Koe 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:55.240 was a massacre. And what happened is all too relevant today. 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.600 Florida is still active involved and photo suppression. And didn't 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.600 even yet why she was so scared for me, And 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.120 then I kind of learned the history, and I think 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.360 it's so appropriate to talk about it in this year 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.599 election because it is still to this date of bloody 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.160 It's day in American political history. Have an on a 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:27.240 presidential election. When a hundred years ago, African Americans in 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:31.440 Florida were preparing for a historic election. Soldiers had come 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.640 home after serving their country in World War One. The 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.240 local economy was booming, women had earned the right to vote, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:43.040 The promise of America seemed closer than ever before, and 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:51.680 then in a night of unspeakable violence, everything changed. There 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.480 was no question who was in charge in central Florida 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.560 a century ago. Often at the time, many of law 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.960 enforcement and local pol petitians here were also members of 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.320 the Ku Klux Klan. Pamela Schwartz is the chief curator 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.640 of the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.400 One prominent white citizen at the time estimated that about 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:17.159 nine of law enforcement officers, judges, and lawyers and their 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.279 Coe area were clan members. There's a new rise in 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.280 the Ku Klux Klan um. There's a resurgence of white supremacy. Uh, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.680 there's an active movement for white supremacists to try to 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.479 disenfranchise black voters. In the days leading up to the 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:38.400 election in November nine, the k k k was especially active. 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.280 There are marches throughout the state of Florida, Jacksonville, Daytona, 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:46.320 Orlando of Ku Klux Klan sending that same message of 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.000 do you not get out to vote if you're black 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.960 or else? In Orlando, around five hundred hooded men paraded 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.880 behind three figures on horseback. They used megaphones to get 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:02.080 their message out. Pol Or peace Is, the author of emancipation, 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.320 betrayed the hidden history of black organizing a white violence 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.600 in Florida from reconstruction to the bloody election of nineteen 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.880 in Daytona, the night before election day, they marched through 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:19.280 Mary mccloyd Bethune's campus, you know, and the municipal authority 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:23.600 UM controlling the electricity actually kind of electricity, you know, 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.960 to Daytona Industrial Worlds School, so that the clan could 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:32.000 march through with their torches and terror tactics and and 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.840 accurately scary. It's just all of this stuff is boiling 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:38.960 and boiling, and the events of November second and third 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:44.000 send it over the top. This was an event hundreds 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.600 of years in the making, from the first enslavement here 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.560 up through black holes and Jim Crow laws and the 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.200 suppression of of women, the suppression of black voters, the 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.360 suppression in all these different ways leading up to something 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:03.160 like this event erupting. Five hundred years ago, Florida was 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.560 under Spanish rule. It was a sanctuary if the slaves 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.760 were able to escape the British colonies, but after Florida 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.840 came unto the control of the United States in eighteen nineteen, 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.000 President Thomas Jefferson sent the American troops to help capture 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:22.400 former slaves and returned them to their chains. Slavery ended 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.400 with the Civil War, but segregation and ideas of white 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:32.200 supremacy remained strong. Centta Florida was especially attractive to former Confederates. 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.439 Marvin Dunn is the author of a history of Florida 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.640 Through Black Eyes. Center Florida was a was a magnet 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.440 for people who had lost the Civil War because keith 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:47.160 Any Florida was untouched by the war. Uh and center 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:50.240 Florida out of the cattle, that said, the Confederate army. 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.160 So businessman and Senta Florida made money during the war 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.000 while other parts of the South are being destimated by 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:03.360 the war. By nineteen twenty, Florida's economy was booming. The 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.200 citrus industry was exploding, so a lot of black people 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.319 were chanted into some to Florida for that reason to work. 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.480 The town of a Koe, with its lush orange groves 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:18.160 and farms nestled along Stark Lake, was especially attractive a 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.400 number of black people, black men in particular, had managed 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.680 to get property orange gross on their own. There's a 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:27.840 man by the name of Moses Norman. Now, Moses Norman 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.160 had lived in this community for some thirty years. He 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.839 was not just some you know, young guy. He was 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.040 a well established individual, well known in town. He had 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.600 his own car. He was known to be a labor broker. 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.880 Most Norman at the time was driving around in a 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.040 car that was worth about seventy five to a thousand dollars. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.800 Pamela Grady is the executive director of the July Perry Foundation. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.559 That's a Mercedes, that's a Jaguar, you know. That's what 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:55.800 he was driving around. And at a time when nobody 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.280 even had cars, there was only maybe one or two 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.840 other cars in the whole town of Koeie, you know, 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.319 and here's this black guy driving through the town, this 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.080 nice car. You know. They had to infuriate them. The 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.480 foundation is named for most Norman's good friend, another prominent 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.360 bleaxis in the koe Julius July Perry. Nothing really happened 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:19.000 in ol koe without him. Florida State Senator Randolph Bracy. 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:21.160 He was kind of like a broker or even white 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.880 businessman who wanted to come in and do do some 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:28.640 farming transactions of what have you. He ran the town. 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.240 July Perry and most Norman were pillars of the Koe 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:37.440 community history. And Paul artis they were successful individuals. They're 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.280 very hard workers, they were they're very good family men. Um, 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:44.400 they were highly respected. And the reason I mentioned the 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:46.920 term highly respected, and this is the most important element 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:49.520 I think about Most Norman and Perry and why why 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.760 they represent such a threat to white supremacy Because these 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.760 two exceptionally respected men were involved in an exceptionally threatening 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:03.840 activity helping black citizens vote. In the wake at World 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:10.400 War One, black Floridians had organized a remarkable statewide voter 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:17.120 registration movement, and the movement really crested and built momentum 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.160 as African American soldiers returned from from Europe. A lot 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.920 of black lessons came back to the South and the 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.320 third in Europe, and they were not going to accommodate 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.600 themselves to the racism that was in there in that community. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.280 And Most Norman and Gelatter in particular were among those 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.640 who came back with that attitude. The two veterans joined 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.679 hundreds of other Fluoridians who were mobilizing to combat white supremacy. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.240 In nineteen twenty, there is a huge black voter registration 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:47.559 drive that supported not only by the black community but 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.880 also by white Republicans, not all of them, most of them. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.679 This was at a time when most African Americans were 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.960 members of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party. In many places in 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.560 the South, blacks not even joined the Democratic Party, And 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.200 thanks to the Nineteenth Amendment, women would be voting for 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:08.800 president for the first time in nineteen twenty. This is 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.320 a whole new voting block and that includes black women. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.600 And what it's doing is it's causing a lot of tension. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.640 People don't always accept change, and so with this you 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.400 also see sort of a resurgence and an ongoing rise 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.360 with white supremacy. In the Kuklux Klan clan members were 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.440 not the only white supremacists trying to hold back the 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.160 new wave of black voters. Once the white you know, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.959 white white elites and white media and white leaders realize 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.480 this is happening, they use their op ed space, their 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.880 their banner headlines. White women, It's up to you to 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:49.719 save the republic. This is the greatest crisis in our 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:54.679 nation's history, and a typical op ed will say, Uh, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:13:00.319 white ladies, do you want your Negro washer women to 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.600 lord over you, to take control? Do you want that 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:11.280 Negro custodian to marry your daughter? The threats heated up 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.400 as the election approached. White supremacies in a crisis, they're 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:20.680 much more honest and races today because they're very blunt 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.360 about it. They're like, white supremacy is our way of 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.720 life as an American. Some white Republicans in Orlando, including 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:32.240 a local judge named John Cheney, helped July Perry and 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.400 most Norman organized black voters. About a month before the 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.240 echoing massacre, they receive a letter from the Florida ku 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:43.480 Klux Klan signed by the ku Klux Klan that basically says, 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:49.920 stop or else, sir, while stopping in your beautiful little 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.120 city this week, I was informed that you are in 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.640 the habit of going out among the negroes of Orlando 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.960 and delivering lectures explaining to them how to assert their rights. 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.600 The grand master of the Florida ku Klux Klan reminded 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.120 them what happened when white people tried to help black 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:12.960 voters during reconstruction you will remember that these things forced 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:16.120 the loyal citizens of the South to organize clans of 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:21.800 determined men who pledged themselves to maintain white supremacy and 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:27.360 to safeguard our women and children. We shall always enjoy 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.360 white supremacy in this country, and he who interferes must 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.520 face the consequences. So there is a threat, there is 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.160 and this is this is a primary starts. We have 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:42.640 the original in our museum collection that that that states this. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.840 Just days before the Echoing massacre, there are marches throughout 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.360 the state of Florida. If you ask a black person 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:54.080 to register a vote Florida, you're asking them to take 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.320 the risk. You're asking them to risk their lives. You're 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:59.840 asking them to risk their livelihoods, You're asking them to 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.680 risk their physical safety. On the morning of November, two 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.119 black stittens of a Koe, Florida made a heroic decision. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.320 They ignored the clan marches, the torches, the letters, and 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:20.480 the threats. They prepared to exercise their most fundamental democratic 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.640 right to vote. They knew it would be challenging, but 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:42.840 they had no idea of the horrors that awaited them. 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.080 This three part limited series is brought to you by 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.840 Procter and Gamble. Procter and Gamble believes that words alone 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:54.000 won't create change, but stories do seek share and expect 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.440 the whole truth of black life widen the screen to 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:02.680 widen our view. Well. On election day, from what we know, 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.200 you know Most Norman and July Perry are with African 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:12.480 Americans who are trying to vote. Historian Paul Ortisse. And 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.040 what happens in the koe is again similar to what 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.120 happens in many parts of the state. People are standing 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.440 in in a line. We don't know how many people, 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.360 and if they're black, you're not allowed to vote. Historian 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.960 Marvin Dunn. This was a plan attempt to challenge the 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.920 denial of the right to vote in Coe and Center 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:41.480 more broadly. Armed white deputies declared themselves poll monitors, poll 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:46.960 workers challenged black voters. Names mysteriously disappeared from the voter rolls, 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.360 poll taxes, it was claimed, had not been paid, and 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.320 a koe anyone turned away from voting had to go 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.400 to the local Justice of the Peace to contest it, 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.600 and he had conveniently gone fishing that day. Most Norman 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.920 was among the people who tried to cast a ballot, 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:10.040 and he um goes to the polls to vote, he 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.919 has turned away. His name had been placed on the 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:18.600 stricken list for voting, and he was never restored. They 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.760 claimed that most Norman, a wealthy landowner deeply involved in 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:27.200 voter registration efforts, had somehow failed to pay his own 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:31.440 poll tax. There are conflicting accounts of what happened after 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.240 most Norman was turned away at the polls. One of 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.080 the biggest problems with this event is how few true 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:43.320 primary source documents there are because why they weren't kept intentionally. 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.920 It's it's intentional erasure of the history Black Systens of 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.280 a Koe and their descendants have spent decades trying to 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:57.480 unearth what exactly happened on election Day nineteen twenty. Pamela Grady, 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.000 I'm a resident of a Koe and know nobody knows 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.359 these people. You have forty thousand residents, you know, and 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.360 most of them not even know that the land they're 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.760 living on. What happened? To history? To rich history, Pamela 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.560 Schwartz collected oral histories and documents for an exhibition at 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.320 the Orange County Regional History Center. There are hundreds and 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.560 hundreds of versions. We actually took one hundred and twenty 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.440 nine and synthesize them into one mega account in the exhibit. 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.199 So it's this huge, like twenty ft wall. It's like 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.480 fourteen pages of text, and it's all in line. You 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.120 can see where the twists and the faults of memory 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.159 and the lies and all of these different ways the 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:40.360 story has um changed over one hundred years. In one 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.359 version of the story, most Norman returned to the Pulse 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:48.360 with his shotgun, sparking an altercation with armed white deputies. 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.320 In another more likely account, Norman took his case to 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:58.160 Judge John Cheney and Orlando historian Paul Artis. Again, he's 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.159 trying to find ways to let, you know, people in 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:07.120 power know that this corruption is happening in a koe, 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.720 you know. But the problem is, even he was able 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.800 to contact similar Judge Chaney, there's really nothing Judge Chaney 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.639 could do. Um if he's able to contact the supervisor 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.840 of elections in Orange County, that guy is not going 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.040 to do anything. Judge Cheney is said to have advised 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.360 Norman to go back to the polls in a Koe 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.360 and get the names of people preventing black citizens from voting. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.639 This is likely to file a complaint to lawsuit. But 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:38.119 it was a very dangerous errand according to one version 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:41.680 of events, Norman enlisted his good friend July Perry to help. 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:44.359 The most important thing I think about most Norman Julie 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:50.240 Perry is that black people trusted them, and both men 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:55.800 felt irresponsibility because of that trust to see things through 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.399 on election day. And that is a testament to their 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.360 you know, their in her courage. I mean, they could 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:04.600 have stayed home. The safest thing for black people on 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:10.679 election day was stay home, but neither man played it safe. 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.880 Historian Marvin Dunn. The two men went back to the polls. Uh, 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.439 they were armed white men there who chased them away. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.720 There was some sort of a confrontation and this men, 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.040 these two men went to July Darry's home retreated there. 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:29.760 Pastor Stephen Nunn is the founder of the July Perry 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:35.040 Foundation and president of its board. He's July Perry's great grandson. 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:40.040 His grandmother. July Perry's daughter, Carritha, was a teenager when 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.359 Mois Norman was turned away at the polls. She told 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.360 me that he wasn't allowed to vote, and a conflict 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.440 took place, and in the process that was a fight 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:53.360 that broke out. That fight ended up at the Perry's 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:57.840 front doorstep. She told me that ultimately, uh, there was 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:02.919 a rumor that spread around town that um, the black 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.840 residents of Okoe had gathered at July Perry's home to 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.720 um discuss a vote to go back and demand their 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:15.840 right to vote, if you would, um what she said 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.240 was not true in the following hours that this white 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.600 mob actually they called themselves a posty, had been deficized 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.480 actually to go and find out about the disturbance of 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.120 the polls. And they knew that July Parry and those 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.720 norminal were among the activists involved in voting. So the 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.320 attention of the white people sort of focused on them, 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.199 but they weren't really sure about it was involved in 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.239 terms of the the rumor that Blakes were armed at 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.640 July Perry's home that circulated very quickly in the white 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:52.160 community following the confrontation at the polls. Now Anna's Burlie Jones, 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.679 black man who was a former slave who was zonned 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.879 by lucle white man and Burlie Jones who at Clinton Central. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:05.440 Uncle Tom told the white people that blacks were arming 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.000 themselves and were ensconced into left her at his home 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:11.400 and that's where the mob went to to let hers house. 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.600 At some point later that night, after the polls closed, 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.280 a white mob, an armed white mob, goes to the 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.040 home with his friend and fellow labor broker, July Perry, 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:28.960 and violence breaks out. Bull shots are fired. She told 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.080 me that at a certain point in time, Uh, some 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:36.359 of the white residents men of the city of o 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:41.080 Koe came to their home and basically made a demand 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.440 for father to come outside, and they wanted to talk, 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.520 and of course he refused and said no. And she 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:52.160 did tell me that there was an attempt to force 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:54.800 someone attempted to force their way in, and there was 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.640 some gunfire. There's a lot of people that are still 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:01.280 trying to cover up the story and so because so 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:03.040 for example, when I first came to Florida in the 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.600 summer UM, I was told by white middle class people, 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.920 even scholars, Oh, Paul, why are you coming to Florida. 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.639 We've had such progressive race relations here. We didn't have 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:19.080 Jim Crow like they had it. You know, you should 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:23.280 go to Uh, we're not nearly as bad as Mississippi, Paul. Uh, 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:25.240 you know you should go to Georgia. What was as 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:27.520 funny because I had already been I've already done field 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:30.080 work in Mississippi, are already done field work in Georgia 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.760 because when I talked to black Floridians, they told me, 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.560 oh my gosh, who is telling you this nonsense? You know? 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:38.760 Or it was just as bad as any other state 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:41.639 in terms of race relations. So there was really no 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:44.800 place for black people to find sanctuary from that. That 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:48.200 kind of the kind of white violence, you know that 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.880 that occurred in Orange County and other places. So it's 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:58.480 an organized attack. It's organized assault on neighborhoods, you know, 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:09.960 on on a community. And the next episode of the 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:15.440 election day massacre, she said that, um, the gunfire was 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:19.200 so great that you could see the bully tracers coming 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.879 through all angles in the house, just flying all over 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:25.800 the place. I mean, basically, people are defending their homes 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:29.200 as this white you know, a pair of military operation 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:33.320 and is tearing through their their their neighborhoods, and they 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:37.680 began to torch and burn and loot and pillage this 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:41.679 entire community. There is no way we will ever factually 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:44.919 probably know how many black people were killed that night. 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:50.520 Records were intentionally not kept. One man told him I 0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:55.480 shot seventeen Negroes. He shot seventeen himself, and he was 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:58.320 bragging about it. Basically, you had a choice. You can 0:24:58.400 --> 0:25:01.040 leave and get shot or you can stay. Barn uh 0:25:01.160 --> 0:25:03.159 and they burned to death. We don't like to use 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:07.040 the term ethnic cleansing unless we can use in Eastern Europe, right, 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:17.879 but it happens here. This episode of Flashback, the Election 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.959 Day Massacre, was written by Sean Braswell and voiced by 0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:25.240 me Eugene S. Robinson, was produced by Maeve mcgoran and 0:25:25.680 --> 0:25:29.720 or A Oh Diggi Zua. Chris Hoff engineered our show. 0:25:40.160 --> 0:25:40.200 H