During the first week of January, 1923, a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town took place in rural Levy County, Florida. Official reports suggest that at least six black people and two white people were killed, but eyewitness accounts suggest a higher death toll of 27 to 150 people. A hundred years ago this week, the town of Rosewood, Florida was destroyed in what contemporary news reports characterized as a race riot.
There were about 200 people living in Rosewood at the time of the massacre, a town in Levy County located an hour southwest of Gainesville and ~9 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. Mostly Black families lived in Rosewood and were landowners, farmers and worked at a nearby sawmill. Similar to the Black Wall Street race riot in Tulsa, OK, Homes, businesses and churches were burned and Black residents fled into the swamps, later settling in Gainesville and other cities.
Historians say the violence kicked off when a white woman from the nearby town of Sumner claimed she was assaulted by a Black man…tale as old as time. According to one historian, “The story was buried for almost 70 years. We retrieved this story, and it’s important to remember the past, we can’t forget about the past regardless of how ugly it is.” No shortage of ugly incidents in the history of this country.
Side Items
Shah-Mazing Jailtime: “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast member Jennifer Shah was sentenced to 6 and 1/2 years in federal prison for running a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme/scam. The ploy involved taking thousands of dollars from elderly and vulnerable people, and in Jen’s case it also seemed to involve spending other peoples’ money on gaudy jewelry and extravagant birthday celebrations. Having viewed her conduct on the Real Housewives show, for research purposes of course, I believe she’s the kind of person who might actually benefit from spending some time inside to think on her sins
Six Year Old School Shooter: A first grader at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Virginia, shot his teacher with a handgun on Friday afternoon. Deploying their usually vague language, the police are calling it “not an accidental shooting.” The boy and the teacher had allegedly been involved in an altercation in a classroom before the boy shot the teacher. The teacher suffered “life-threatening” injuries but had improved by Saturday and was in stable condition. You know what could’ve stopped this bad child with a gun? You guessed it, a good child with a gun
Watched It So You Don’t Have To: “Love and Other Drugs”, a 2010 rom-com starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a self-doubting misogynistic pharma salesman and Anne Hathaway playing opposite him in the role of a 26-year old victim of Parkinson’s disease. Calling it a rom-com might be a stretch, considering it was neither particularly comedic nor romantic. It fits the classic mold of an overproduced early 2000’s swing and a miss. I give it a 3/10 for the combination of bad writing, lack of chemistry, and loads of unnecessary nudity