Ocoee Massacre (Orlando, FL), 1920

Click here for the Wikipedia article on "Ocoee massacre."

I had never heard of it until today. I caught a snippet of a TV news clip a couple of days ago that mentioned another massacre similar to the Tulsa massacre of 1921 (Black Wall Street) -- which I had never heard of until about six months ago. 

The Ocoee massacre was a mass racial violence event that saw a white mob attack numerous African-American residents in the northern parts of, Ocoee, Florida [a suburb of Orlando]. The massacre took place on November 2, 1920, the day of the U.S. presidential electiion. 

By most estimates, a total of 30–35 black people were killed in the violence. Most African American-owned buildings and residences in northern Ocoee were burned to the ground. Other African Americans living in southern Ocoee were later killed or driven out of town by the threat of further violence being used against them. Thus, Ocoee essentially became an all-white or "sundown" town. The massacre has been described as the "single bloodiest day in modern American political history".

The attack was intended to prevent black citizens from voting. Black people had essentially been disenfranchised in Florida since the beginning of the 20th century. In Ocoee and across the state, various black organizations had been conducting voter registration drives for a year.

In November 1920, Mose Norman, a prosperous African-American farmer, tried to vote but was turned away twice on Election Day. Norman was among those working on the voter drive. A white mob surrounded the home of Julius "July" Perry, where Norman was thought to have taken refuge. After Perry drove away the white mob with gunshots, killing two men and wounding one who tried to break into his house, the mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and Orange County. The mob laid waste to the African-American community in northern Ocoee and eventually killed Perry. They took his body to Orlando and hanged him from a lightpost to intimidate other black people. Norman escaped, never to be found. Hundreds of other African Americans fled the town, leaving behind their homes and possessions.

"Most of the people living in Ocoee don't even know that this happened there", said Pamela Schwartz, chief curator of the Orange County Regional History Center, which sponsored an exhibit on it. For almost a century, many descendants of survivors were not aware of the massacre that occurred in their hometown.

Then there's the incident of National Guard troops opening fire on students demonstrating on a university campus in 1968 -- 3 killed, 28 injured. 

Did you just assume I was referring to Kent State? No, that was 4 killed, 9 injured, and it happened in 1970. Surely the whole world knows about Kent State, when the National Guard opened fire on students demonstrating, an incident immortalized in this picture:

 

And in Neil Young's song, Ohio:

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio

Tulsa, Ocoee, Orangeburg -- these things aren't well publicized, are they? I wonder why that is?