WEBVTT - Special Series: The Election Day Massacre. Part 1. 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:09.560 I'm Sean Braswell. Welcome to Flashback. We're doing something a 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.719 little different in this episode. We're running a special series 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.120 about the worst incident of election violence in American history, 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.599 an event that is almost forgotten today. It happened a 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.680 century ago on Election Day ninety and the town of 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:27.520 a Kohe, Florida. The victims were hundreds of black residents. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.520 The perpetrators were their white neighbors. And the reason was 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.400 that black citizens had gone to the polls and tried 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:46.479 to vote. One hundred years ago in the center of Florida, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.680 just a few miles from where Disney World stands today, 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:59.640 there was an exodus. Hundreds of black families piled their 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.200 chilled and into wagons. They trudged all night along roads 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.240 and railroad tracks and through sugarcane fields. They barely escapped 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.160 with their lives. Dozens of their loved ones did not. 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.520 They were lynched, shot, burned to death in the wreckage 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:23.200 of their own homes. Today, this is forgotten, largely missing 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.280 from history books, handed down only as a secret memory 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:31.000 between generations of the families who escaped. But in ninety 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.000 that November nine, the town of Okoe, Florida, wasn't a secret. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.400 It made headlines around the world. There was a grand 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.919 jury investigation, even a hearing before Congress, and Americans black 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:46.560 and white, knew exactly why it had happened. They knew 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.960 what it meant. This exodus was a warning Danny black 0:01:51.040 --> 0:02:03.600 citizen who dared to try to vote. I'm Eugene S. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:18.040 Robinson and this is the election day massacre from Ossie media. 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:23.040 In two thousand and twelve, Randolph Bracy became the first 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.160 representative from a new state House district in central Florida. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:28.880 Less than one sixth of the members of the Florida 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.480 House were black. I I was looking for office space 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.320 after I won my election, and I had recently moved 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.880 to Koe, and I decided to put my office in 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.760 oh Koe. Koe is just a dozen miles from Disney World, 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.280 but it still has the feel of a small town. 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.919 It's a pretty lake, splash park for the kids, but 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.320 beloved ice cream stand, the perfect place to live and work. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.079 And I remember it was an African American woman, older woman, 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.720 and she almost lost it when I thought I was 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:04.520 moving my office Koe. But she was from the age 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.639 where she the era where she remembered that it was 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:12.040 a sundown town where you couldn't be in Okoe unless 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.120 you had some business and you had to be going 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:19.440 before dark. Bracy, now, a Florida State Senator, was shocked, 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:22.959 but many people who live in the area longer are not. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.799 Historian Marvin Dunn is Professor emeritus at Florida International University. 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:32.040 He grew up in central Florida. My father told us, 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.800 told me and my brothers about picking oranges in in 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.560 Okoe when they would leave to come back to the land, 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:43.240 so driver of the white drive at Landridge until almost dark, 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.360 they would walk out of Ocoe rather than be confident 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.040 after dark. Cooee is a diverse community today, and it 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.880 had a thriving black population long ago. But for half 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.760 a century of Coe had almost no black residents. But 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.520 this was in the ninety late nineties, and eight told me, please, 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.800 don't tell anyone now you're coming here, that we've invited 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.000 you here, that we're showing you where the black communities 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.160 used to be. Paul Ortiz is a professor of history 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.600 at the University of Florida. Don't tell anyone because it 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:16.320 could put your life in jeopardy. It could put us 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.599 in jeopardy. There are good reasons why no black person 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.599 wants to live there for so many years. A Koe 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.200 resident and community historian Pamela Grady, you can see that's 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.720 what happened there. You can feel that energy there. It's 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.440 still it's still alive and well. What happened in a 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.040 Koe a century ago remains the worst incident of election 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.760 day of violence in US history. What happened in a 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.480 Koe was not an altercation. It was more than a 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.360 lynching or shooting or riot. What happened in a Koe 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:54.400 was a massacre. And what happened is all too relevant today. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.800 Florida is still active involved in Phota suppression. I didn't 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.760 even get why she is so scared for me, and 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:05.320 then I kind of learned the history, and I think 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.520 it's so appropriate to talk about it in this year 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.800 election because it is still to this date of bloody 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.320 It's day in American political history have an on a 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:26.960 presidential election. One hundred years ago, African Americans in Florida 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.920 were preparing for a historic election. Soldiers had come home 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.240 after serving their country in World War One, the local 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.400 economy was booming, women had earned the right to vote 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.200 the promise of America seemed closer than ever before, and 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:50.880 then in a night of unspeakable violence, everything changed. There 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:53.640 was no question who was in charge in central Florida 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.760 a century ago. Often at the time, many of law 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.160 enforcement and local politicians here were also members of the 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:04.640 Ku Klux Klan. Pamela Schwartz is the chief curator of 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.760 the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando, Florida. One 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.880 prominent white citizen at the time estimated that about nine 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.719 of law enforcement officers, judges, and lawyers and their Coe 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:20.560 area were clan members. There's a new rise in the 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.480 Ku Klux Klan um. There's a resurgence of white supremacy. Uh, 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.840 there's an active movement for white supremacists to try to 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.640 disenfranchise black voters. In the days leading up to the 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:37.600 election in November ninety the k k k was especially active. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.440 There are marches throughout the state of Florida, Jacksonville, Daytona, 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.520 Orlando of Ku Klux Klan sending that same message of 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.200 do you not get out to vote if you're black 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:53.120 or else. In Orlando, around five hundred hooded men paraded 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:57.080 behind three figures on horseback. They used megaphones to get 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.240 their message out. Paul Ortiz is, the author of Emancipation, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.560 betrayed the hidden history of black organizing and white violence 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.200 in Florida, from reconstruction to the bloody election of ninety 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.080 in Daytona the night before election that they marched through 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:18.440 Mary mccloyd Bethune's campus, you know, and the municipal authority 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.800 um controlling the electricity actually kind of electricity, you know, 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.200 to Daytona industrial world school, so that the clan could 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:31.160 march through with their torches and terror tactics and and 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:35.000 accurately scary. It's just all of this stuff is boiling 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.160 and boiling, and the events of November two and third 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.160 send it over the top. This was an event hundreds 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.760 of years in the making, from the first enslavement here 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.720 up through black holes and Jim Crow laws and the 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.200 suppression of women, the suppression of black voters, the suppression 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.760 in all these different ways leading up to something like 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:02.680 this event erupting. Five hundred years ago, Florida was under 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.960 Spanish rule. It was a sanctuary if the slaves were 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:10.120 able to escape the British colonies. But after Florida came 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.040 unto the control of the United States. In eighteen nineteen, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.200 President Thomas Jefferson sent the American troops to help capture 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.600 former slaves and returned them to their chains. Slavery ended 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.600 with the Civil War, but segregation and ideas of white 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:31.280 supremacy remained strong. Centta Florida was especially attractive to former Confederates. 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.600 Marvin Dunn is the author of a History of Florida 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:39.439 through Black Eyes. Center Florida was a was a magnet 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.679 for people who had lost the Civil War because keith A, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.800 Florida was untouched by the war. Uh and Center Florida 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.839 the cattle. That said, the Confederate Army. So businessman in 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.439 Santa Florida made money during the war while other parts 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:58.080 of the South had being destimated by the war. By 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:03.680 nineteen twenty or this economy was booming. The citrus industry 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.960 was exploding, so a lot of black people were attracted 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.160 into some to Florida for that reason to work. The 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.760 town of a Koe, with its lush orange groves and 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.640 farms nestled along Stark Lake, was especially attractive a number 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.640 of black people, black men in particular, had managed to 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.120 get property orange groves on their own. There's a man 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.280 by the name of Moses Norman. Now Moses Norman had 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.560 lived in this community for some thirty years. He was 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.160 not just some you know, young guy. He was a 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.320 well established individual, well known in town. He had his 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.760 own car. He was known to be a labor broker. 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.080 Most Norman at the time was driving around in a 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.439 car that was worth about seventy five to a hund 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.640 thousand dollars. Pamela Grady is the executive director of the 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.240 July Perry Foundation. That's a Mercedes, that's a Jaguar, you know, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.400 that's what he was driving around. And at a time 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:57.120 when nobody even had cars. There was only maybe one 0:09:57.200 --> 0:09:59.599 or two other cars in the whole town of Akoe. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.520 And here's this black guy driving through the town this 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.280 nice car. You know, they had to infuriate him. The 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.680 foundation is named from most Norman's good friend, another prominent 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:14.160 black Cystan of the Koe, Julius July Perry. Nothing really 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:18.200 happened in Okoe without him. Florida State Senator Randolph Bracy. 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:20.320 He was kind of like a broker or even white 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.560 businessman who wanted to come in and do some farming 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.480 transactions of what have you. He ran the town July 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:32.280 Perry and Most Norman were pillars of the Koe community 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.880 history and Paul Artiz they were successful individuals. They're very 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.480 hard workers, they were they're very good family men. Um 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.559 they were highly respected. And the reason I mentioned the 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.080 term highly respected, and this is the most important element 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.480 I think about Most Norman and July Perry and why 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.600 why they represent such a threat to white supremacy, Because 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.479 these two exceptionally respected men were involved in an exceptionally 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:02.840 threatening activity helping black citizens vote. In the wake at 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:09.319 World War One, black Floridians had organized a remarkable statewide 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:14.720 voter registration movement, and the movement really prested and built 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:20.200 momentum as African American soldiers returned from from Europe. A 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:22.800 lot of black pressions came back to the South and 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.880 they had third in Europe and they were not going 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.640 to accommodate themselves to the racism that was in there 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.280 in that community. And Most Norman and Gelatter in particularly 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.680 were among those who came back with that attitude. The 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.319 two veterans joined hundreds of other Floridians who were mobilizing 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:42.959 to combat white supremacy. In nineteen twenty, there is a 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.880 shoot black voter registration drive that's supported not only by 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.320 the black community, but also by white Republicans, not all 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.960 of them, most of them. This was at a time 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:56.559 when most African Americans were members of Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party. 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.600 In many places in the South, blacks could not even 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.280 join in the Democratic Party, and thanks to the Nineteenth Amendment, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.920 women would be voting for president for the first time 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:09.560 in nineteen twenty. This is a whole new voting block 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.160 and that includes black women. And what it's doing is 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:17.680 it's causing a lot of tension. People don't always accept change, 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.680 and so with this you also see sort of a 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.679 resurgence and an ongoing rise with white supremacy in the 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.760 Ku Klux Klan clan members were not the only white 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.360 supremacists trying to hold back the new wave of black voters. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.560 Once the white you know, white white elites and white 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.200 media and white leaders realize this is happening, they use 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.280 their op ed space, their their banner headlines. White women, 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.640 it's up to you to save the republic. This is 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.760 the greatest crisis in our nation's history. And a typical 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:57.080 op ed will say, uh, white ladies, do you want 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:02.280 your Negro washer women to lord over you, to take control. 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:08.600 Do you want that Negro custodian to marry your daughter? 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.080 The threats heated up as the election approached. White supremacies 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:18.800 in a crisis. They're much more honest and races today 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.400 because they're very blunt about it. They're like, white supremacy 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.080 is our way of life as an American. Some white 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.160 Republicans in Orlando, including a local judge named John Cheney, 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:34.720 helped July Perry and most Norman organized black voters. About 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.560 a month before the Echoing massacre, they receive a letter 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:40.600 from the Florida ku Klux Klan signed by the ku 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:47.320 Klux Klan that basically says, stop or else, sir, while 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.880 stopping in your beautiful little city this week, I was 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.640 informed that you are in the habit of going out 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:58.720 among the Negroes of Orlando and delivering lectures explaining to 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:02.880 them how to as their rights. The grand master of 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.719 the Florida ku Klux Klan reminded them what happened when 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.040 white people tried to help black voters during reconstruction. You 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.400 will remember that these things forced the loyal citizens of 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.720 the South to organize clans of determined men who pledge 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:22.640 themselves to maintain white supremacy and to safeguard our women 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:28.760 and children. We shall always enjoy white supremacy in this country, 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.200 and he who interferes must face the consequences. So there 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.480 is a threat, there is and this is this is 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:37.840 a primary starch. We have the original in our museum 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:43.880 collection that that that states this. Just days before the 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.800 Echoe massacre, there are marches throughout the state of Florida. 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:51.560 If you ask a black person to register a vote Florida, 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:55.000 you're asking them to take the risk. They're asking them 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.280 to risk their lives. You're asking them to risk their livelihoods, 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.520 You're asking them to risk their physical safety. On the 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:07.760 morning of November, two black citizens of a Koe, Florida 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:13.000 made a heroic decision. They ignored the clan marches, the torches, 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.840 the letters, and the threats. They prepared to exercise their 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.840 most fundamental democratic right to vote. They knew it would 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.360 be challenging, but they had no idea of the horrors 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:45.440 that awaited them. Well on election day. From what we know, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.960 you know most Norman and July Perry are with African 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:55.200 Americans who are trying to vote. Historian Paul Ortisse, and 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.800 what happens in the Koe is again similar to what 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:01.440 happens in many parts of the state. Um people are 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.200 standing in a line. We don't know how many people, 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.119 and if they're black, you're not allowed to vote. Historian 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.840 Marvin Dunn. This was a plan attempt to challenge the 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.960 the denial of the right to vote, and coy in 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:23.280 center more broadly armed white deputies declared themselves poll monitors, 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:28.840 poll workers challenged black voters. Names mysteriously disappeared from the 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.920 voter rolls. Poll taxes, it was claimed, had not been 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.720 paid and a coe anyone turned away from voting had 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.400 to go to the local Justice of the peace to 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:44.239 contest it, and he had conveniently gone fishing that day. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.080 Most Norman was among the people who tried to cast 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:52.120 a ballot, and he um goes to the polls to vote, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.560 he has turned away. His name had been placed on 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.280 the stricken list for a voting and he was never 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.320 re stored. They claimed that most Norman, a wealthy landowner 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.960 deeply involved in voter registration efforts, had somehow failed to 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.199 pay his own poll tax. There are conflicting accounts of 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.360 what happened after most Norman was turned away at the polls. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.640 One of the biggest problems with this event is how 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:23.920 few true primary source documents there are because why they 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.440 weren't kept intentionally. It's it's intentional erasure of the history. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.720 Black systems of a Koe and their descendants have spent 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:37.000 decades trying to unearth what exactly happened on election Day 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.840 nineteen twenty. Pamela Grady, I'm a resident of a Koe, 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.359 and you know, nobody knows these people. You have forty 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.000 thousand residents, you know, and most of them don't even 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.760 know that the lands they're living on what happened to history? 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:55.280 The rich history. Pamela Schwartz collected oral histories and documents 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.399 for an exhibition at the Orange County Regional History Center. 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.400 There are hundreds and hundreds of versions. We actually took 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.920 one hundred and nine and synthesize them into one mega 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.040 account in the exhibit. So it's this huge, like twenty 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.000 ft wall. It's like fourteen pages of text and it's 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.800 all in line. You can see where the twists and 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.600 the faults of memory and the lies in all of 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.359 these different ways. The story has um changed over one 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.080 hundred years. In one version of the story, most Norman 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.080 returned to the pulse with his shotgun, sparking an altercation 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:35.280 with armed white deputies. In another more likely account, Norman 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.240 took his case to Judge John Cheney and Orlando historian 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.200 Paul artis again, he's trying to find ways to let 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:48.399 you know, people in power know that this corruption is 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.439 happening in a koe, you know. But the problem is, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.400 even he was able to contact similar Judge Chaney, there's 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.520 really nothing Judge Chaney could do. Um If he's able 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.440 to contact the super revisor of elections in Orange County, 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.679 that guy is not going to do anything. Jud Cheney 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:07.879 is said to have advised Norman to go back to 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.280 the polls in a koe and get the names of 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:14.679 people preventing black citizens from voting. This is likely to 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.639 file a complaint to lawsuit, but it was a very 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:22.360 dangerous errand according to one version of events, Norman enlisted 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.640 his good friend July Perry to help. The most important 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.760 thing I think about most Norman Julip Perry is that 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:35.480 black people trusted them, and both men felt irresponsibility because 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:40.080 of that trust to see things through. On election day, 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.560 and that is a testament to their you know, their 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:44.720 character and their courage. I mean, they could have stayed home. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.960 The safest thing for black people on election day was 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:55.800 stay home. But neither man played it safe. Historian Marvin Dunn. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:58.800 The two men went back to the polls. Uh, they 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:02.360 were harmed white men there who chased them away. There 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.800 was some sort of a confrontation and this men, these 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:10.280 two men went to his home retreated there. Pastor Stephen 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.320 Nunn is the founder of the July Perry Foundation and 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:19.080 president of its board. He's July Perry's great grandson. His grandmother, 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.560 July Perry's daughter, Carritha, was a teenager when Mois Norman 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.840 was turned away at the polls. She told me that, Um, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.840 he wasn't allowed to vote, and a conflict took place, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.920 and in the process there was a fight that broke out. 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.480 That fight ended up at the Perry's front doorstep. She 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.200 told me that ultimately, Uh, there was a rumor that 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:47.440 spread around town that UM, the black residents of Okoe 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:52.760 had gathered at July Perry's home to um discuss a 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:56.280 revote to go back and demand their right to vote 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.480 if you would, um, which she said was not true. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.160 In the following hours that this white mob, actually they 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:08.280 called themselves the posty had been deft as actually to 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.760 go and find out about the disturbance of the polls, 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.479 and they knew that July Parry and those Normen were 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.080 among the activists involved in voting. So the attention of 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.600 the white people sort of focused on them, but they 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.439 weren't really sure about it was involved in terms of 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.880 the the rumor that blacks were armed at July Parry's 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:29.520 home that circulated very quickly in the white community following 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:36.600 the confrontation at the polls. Now Anna's Burly Jones, black 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:40.040 man who was a former slave who was owned ettle 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.960 white man, and Burnie Jones, who was a quintesidential Uncle 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:48.720 Tom told the white people that blacks were arming themselves 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.280 and were ensconced in July Parry's home, and that's where 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:57.240 the mob went to Julia Parry's house. At some point 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.520 later that night, after the polls closed, a white mob, 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:02.679 an armed white mob, goes to the home of his 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:07.520 friend and fellow labor broker, July Perry, and violence breaks out. 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.679 Bull shots are fired. She told me that at a 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.520 certain point in time, Uh, some of the white residents 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:21.640 men of the city of Okoe came to their home 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:25.399 and basically made a demand for father to come outside, 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.160 and they wanted to talk, and of course he refused 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:32.720 and said no. And she did tell me that there 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:36.239 was an attempt to force someone attempted to force their 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.399 way in, and there was some gunfire. There's a lot 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:41.639 of people that are still trying to cover up the 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:45.080 story and so because so for example, when I first 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:48.560 came to Florida in the summer um, I was told 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:53.400 by white middle class people, even scholars, Oh, Paul, why 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:56.880 are you coming to Florida. We've had such progressive race 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.879 relations here. We didn't have jim role like they had it. 0:23:01.000 --> 0:23:03.720 You know, you should go to Uh, We're not nearly 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.680 as bad as Mississippi. Pall Uh, you know, you should 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:08.679 go to Georgia. What was this funny? Because I had 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.359 already been I've already done field work in Mississippi. Are 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:14.119 already done at field work in Georgia. Because when I 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:17.400 talked to black Floridians, they told me, oh my gosh, 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.840 who was telling you this nonsense? You know? Or it 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.560 was just as bad as any other state in terms 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:25.040 of race relations. So there was really no place where 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:28.520 black people to find sanctuary from that. That kind of 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:32.240 the kind of white violence. You know that that occurred 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.359 in Orange County and other places. So it's an organized attack. 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:44.800 It's organized assault on neighborhoods, you know, on on a community. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:54.560 And the next episode of the election day massacre, she 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:59.199 said that, um, the gunfire was so great that you 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:03.919 could see the League tracers coming through all angles in 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.000 the house, just flying all over the place. I mean, basically, 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.679 people are defending their homes as this white you know, 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:14.040 a pair of military operation is tearing through their their 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:18.359 their neighborhoods, and they begin to torch and burn and 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:23.200 loot and pillage this entire community. There is no way 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.920 we will ever factually probably know how many black people 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:31.120 were killed that night. Records were intentionally not kept. One 0:24:31.200 --> 0:24:37.920 man told him I shot seventeen negroes. He shot seventeen himself, 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.760 and he was bragging about it. Basically, you had a choice. 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:42.520 You can leave and get shot, or you can stay 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:45.520 and burn. Uh. And they burned to death. We don't 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:48.520 like to use the term ethnic cleansing unless we can 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:58.920 use in Eastern Europe, right, but it happens here. This 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:01.919 episode of flash Back, The Election Day Massacre, was written 0:25:01.960 --> 0:25:05.359 by Sean Braswell and voiced by me Eugene S. Robinson, 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:09.919 was produced by Maeve mcgoran and your A Oh Diggi Zua. 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:12.520 Chris Hoff engineered our show.