(light eerie music) - Hi, friends. Happy Wednesday or Thursday if you're watching over on YouTube. Hey, how are you doing? I hope you're having a
wonderful day so far. My name is Bailey Sarian, and this is the Dark History Podcast. (dramatic music)
Woo! I need a theme song for
Dark History, don't I? Any who, I'm here to talk
about some dark ass history that we never learned in school or I should at least say that
I never learned in school. If you're new here, hi, welcome. Come take a seat by me, don't be shy. If you're interested in
learning about people and events that your history
books didn't cover in school, but maybe should have, then you'll fit in right in here with us. Okay, look, today's story,
it's uncomfortable, okay? It's heartbreaking, it's
just, it's awful, it's sad. Those are all the words I can think of. It just doesn't make any sense. But with all of that being said, there's really no sugar coating this. This is what happened. And it's when we're honest
and when we're transparent, that we can learn and
grow together, you know? But most of all, not let
history repeat itself. So, let's set the scene. It's New Year's Day, 1923, and many people are waking up from celebrating the new year. Some of them are still wearing
a flapper dress or a suit, tired from dancing the
night away in a jazz club or maybe they're hungover from buying illegal drinks at a speakeasy. Yes, oh, yes, it was still
illegal to buy alcohol. Wild, right? Of course though, that was
more of the upscale city vibe. If you were in the country, had a little less pocket change to spend, or were too straight-edge to visit those kind of illegal joints, then
you probably had a quieter evening of staying at home
and ringing in the New Year with loved ones, you know? Now, 1923 in general,
President Warren G. Harding would die in office, the
Yankee stadium would be built in the Bronx, and the
original Hollywood sign would be built. Oh, yeah, Hollywood was
originally called Hollywoodland, but we could save that
for another episode, babe. But before all of that, on the
morning of January 1st, 1923, 30-year old James and his
22-year old wife, Fannie Taylor, woke up at home in a town called Sumner; a neighboring community
of Rosewood, Florida. That morning, James Taylor goes to work like he did any other day. But, while James was at work, something happens to his
wife Fannie, that, boy, it just triggers a domino
effect, a horrific domino effect. It leads to the murders
of innocent people, the destruction of a town, and the displacement
of an entire community, changing Rosewood forever. Ooh, this sounds dramatic. I know because it is. Welcome, hi. This episode, friends, we're
going to be talking about the Rosewood Massacre. Have you heard of it? Yeah, exactly, exactly. This one just, it completely
blew my mind as to like, why in the waldo did we not
learn about this in school? Correction, I can only
speak for myself here, so why in the waldo did my
history books not teach this? Rosewood Massacre? Yeah, it happened. Let's discuss and learn
together what took place in 1923, Rosewood, Florida. Buckle in kitty cats,
(cat meowing) this is just, what? Yeah, I'm great with words, obviously. That's why I started a podcast. The beginning, great place to start. The town of Rosewood was
established in the mid 1800s, white families had moved
here prior to the civil war and black landowners started
to move in, in the 1870s. It's located in the state of Florida, and it's just nine miles
east of the Gulf of Mexico. The name Rosewood, it came
from the red cedar trees that were all over the land there. Fun Fact alert.
♪ Boo, boo, boo ♪ Did you know that when you
cut open a red cedar tree, the cedar has a pale pink color inside? Yeah, I guess its like super
pretty, super beautiful. But did you also know if you cut me open I've got a little pink inside. Hey, oh. Anyways, so they called the town Rosewood after the pink color. Okay, nice, right? Well, as we've learned through history, we can't have nice things. So when people saw the really
pretty color that was inside of these beautiful, incredible trees, what do you think they did? Ah, yes, they cut them all down. They cut them down and
they sold the lumber. Now, because of this
they made a pretty decent amount of money and it supported
the economy of the town, but still, sad for the trees. By the year 1886, the town
had developed quite a bit. It had its own post office, a schoolhouse, and there were three churches; one for the white people
and two for black people. Remember, we're talking
about a time that's very much a segregated America. So, four years later in 1890, the town began to hit some hard times. All the red cedar trees
had been chopped down and without the trees,
there's no money to be made, which in turn, lead to the
town's economic decline. Because of the loss of income
and not many available jobs, many members of the white
community left Rosewood and headed to the nearby town of Sumner. Sumner was appealing because
there was a large sawmill, which provided tons of jobs, and right now the people needed work. So sign me up for Sumner, you know? So, by the year 1900,
the Rosewood population had now shifted to a
majority black community. Now, within Rosewood,
there was a really close sense of community. Like everyone seemed to know one another, and looked out for one another as well. I mean, rarely did anyone
need to leave town to travel for food or for things they may
need because they had almost everything right there within Rosewood. In addition to the three churches, schoolhouse and post office, Rosewood also had a train station which will become important later, a general store, and a sugar mill. Plus if you were looking for some fun, they even had a Rosewood baseball team. What I'm getting at is Rosewood was overall just a nice place. So, for over 20 years,
the people of Rosewood stayed within Rosewood,
and the people of Sumner, the neighboring town,
they stayed within Sumner. They coexisted, they had their
own communities going on, and they were just doing their own thing. But unfortunately, that
peaceful times was about to end, 'cause some shit was a-brewin'. But before we get into what was a-brewin', let's pause for a word from our sponsor. Things are kind of getting
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(light eerie music) Okay, remember, it's January 1st, 1923. Our young couple, James and Fannie Taylor, who are white, are waking
up on the first day of the new year and James
is like, "Goodbye, Fannie. I'm off to work. I love you, babe." And Fannie is like, "Oh, my God, yeah. Have a good day." Whatever, that's probably what they did. Anyways, so James leaves his wife, Fannie, home alone 'cause he has to go to work. He works at the sawmill in Sumner, which was about one mile east of Rosewood. Now, while James is at work milling saws, Fannie, who was back at home, rumor had it someone had attacked her. Oh yeah, oh yeah. The neighbors heard screams. They heard screams coming
from within the Taylor's home. And they were like, oh, my God. What's going on? Screaming, hm. So, for you an I, we'd probably
go and check it out, right? We'd be like oh, my God. There's screaming, are you okay? But for Fannie's neighbors, they heard the screams and
then they just left it alone. Great, yeah, awesome. So some time goes by and
James comes home from work and when he gets home he sees that Fannie has a big bruise on her face. It's clear that somebody
had hit her pretty badly. So, he asks her, "Who did this to you?" And Fannie tells him that
a black man assaulted her. She's like, "I don't know who it was, but it was definitely a black
man," according to Fanny. I mean, this could be possible. This guy came in,
randomly beat her I guess, in her own house, but
remember, this is a small town. In fact, both Sumner and
Rosewood were so small that most people recognized one another. So, are you sure, Fannie? Are you sure that's who you say, Fannie? The fact that Fannie could not name the person who attacked her, that should've been the
first red flag, okay? That maybe this person that
quote-unquote "attacked her," was not a resident from Rosewood. I'm telling you, I'm not kidding you, if you lived in Rosewood you
would know your neighbors. Everybody knew each other. But Fannie would most
likely know this person because again, the
likelihood of her not knowing is pretty slim to not. So, sure, Fannie. Sure. Again because it's the 1920s,
unfortunately this is a time when a white woman made bold
claims of being attacked by a black person, nobody questioned it. They just believed it to be true, so they didn't question
Fannie's story for one second. Like, oh, my God, she was
beaten by a black man, like we are so angry. And nobody wanted to double check and make sure she wasn't lying. They just went with it. People are talking within Rosewood, okay? And this story about Fannie gets back to a woman by the name of Sarah Carrier. And she's like, wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute. (Bailey muttering) That's not true. Sarah said that she was
at the Taylor's home the morning of that so-called attack. And not just that, but her
granddaughter was there with her. And neither of them saw a
black man attack Fannie. Let alone, even enter their house. Well, you're probably wondering, Bailey, who the hell's Sarah? Okay, well, Sarah, she
had been working for the Taylors for quite some time. She was there that day
with her granddaughter, doing the Taylor's laundry. Now, Sarah said that she
actually saw a white man leaving the Taylor house that morning. She said she never saw a black man come by the house all day. Now, get this, get this. Sarah recognized this white man. She had seen him come by the
house once or twice before. Hm. Sarah had believed that this
man and Fannie were having some kind of winkie dinkie,
if you know what I mean. Sarah said that this man was
actually the guy that beat Fannie that morning and
that she was just lying to cover her ass because she's
probably having an affair and she doesn't want people to know. Fannie. So, Sarah's version is
now going around town. It's spreading like wildfire
within the black community. They all 100% believed her. Why would she lie? Whoa. Why would she lie? Unfortunately though, the
white voices were louder within the community
and made it very clear that Fannie was
quote-unquote "not a liar." She was telling the truth, okay? Eye frickin' roll, right? It gets a lot more traumatic. Talkin' amongst the accusers
a name comes up, Jesse Hunter. And they think, they're
discussing, they're like, hey, Jesse Hunter, this is our guy. This is the guy who did it. Who's Jesse Hunter? Okay, now, Jesse Hunter was
a black man who recently escaped from the nearby prison. Now, because Jesse was a
black man who recently escaped from prison, well, they're
believing he must have done it. Must be the same black
man that attacked Fannie. Note my sarcasm. Mind you there was
absolutely 100% zero evidence that Jesse was the perpetrator. But that doesn't matter to them, they've got their minds
set on Jesse Hunter, and they go out looking for him. While out looking for
him, the county sheriff, Robert Walker, he joins in on the search. Now, this county sheriff was
able to get a bunch of other white men together to form
what was called a posse to help with the search. Now, this isn't like
your normal posse today, like a group of friends hanging out. Back then a posse was a more formal thing. It was an official group
of men that a Sheriff could organize in case of an emergency. And this, to them at that time, well this was that kind of emergency. The Sheriff would pull in
some guys from around town, I don't know how he
picked them, but he did, and he made them his temporary deputies. Which is wild to think. Just random like, hey, you. You're a deputy now. You were allowed to do that. So the county sheriff
got the posse together and they start searching for Jesse. Now, they were determined
to catch him and punish him for his alleged attack towards Fannie. The posse even went down to
the local prison to borrow a pack of bloodhounds
to track Jesse's scent. I mean, they were seeing red. No common sense going on here. The posse, they hear
that Jesse was last seen with another black man named Sam Carter, who worked as the local blacksmith. Now, this alleged sighting
has never been confirmed, but they don't care. Now remember, again, and
I've said it 100 times, it's a small town, so they know exactly where Sam Carter lives and they
head straight to his house. They barged in and interrogated Sam and asked "Where's Jesse?" And they're demanding it,
they're like "Where's Jesse? We need to know where he is right now. Where is he going? Where's Jesse?" But Sam, he couldn't
answer their questions, because he didn't have the answers. You know, he doesn't know. He has no idea what's going on. Of course, the posse doesn't believe him, they were convinced that
Sam, he knew something, okay. Because they are convinced
of this they get swept up in what becomes this angry mob mentality. So, they force Sam out of
his house, they kidnap him. The posse's thought process
was that if they torture Sam, they can probably can get some
answers as to where Jesse is. So, they kidnap Sam, they hung
him from a tree by his neck, pushing Sam to tell the
quote-unquote "truth." Mm mm. Sam, he was telling the
truth the whole time. He didn't know where Jesse was. But that's not acceptable to the posse, they're hellbent on their mission of quote-unquote "justice." They shot him to death and
left his body in the road between Rosewood and Sumner. Sam Carter was only 45 years old. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So by that night, the
original posse which was just kinda small at first, oh babe, babe, it had now snowballed into a freakin' mob. Oh, yeah. People were talking and the
neighboring towns got word about what had taken place, and that this manhunt
for Jesse was going down. So a bunch of rando white men come out of the frickin' woodwork. It was like, where did you guys come from? They just showed up. There is no official count of
how many men joined this riot, but that's exactly what it turns into. A freakin' riot. And this is when the massacre begins. I know, this is a little heavy. We're just gonna take
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(light eerie music) The death of poor Sam
Carter was the catalyst for what was about to become
the Rosewood massacre. The posse is still out
searching for Jesse Hunter. Remember, the prison
escapee who the mob believed beat Fannie, but now, the
posse searching for Jesse, it's growing bigger and bigger, and more white men are joining this mob from all over Florida. Because this mob had
grown to such a big sight, members of the community,
families, both black and white, could sense that things
were getting out of control. Violence was a-brewing. And this no longer feels
like it was just a search for Jesse, nay nay. It was turning more aggressive, angry, hate filled as this white
mob was now using this as an excuse to destroy
everything in sight. So, the black community is
terrified by what they're seeing happening in their town of Rosewood. They thought that maybe
if they got together in a large group in some of their homes, there would be safety in large
numbers, protecting them. So they did that. A couple days go by and on day
three there's another rumor spreading around that
Jesse was actually hiding in one of the homes that
they missed back in Rosewood. And the home was none other
than Sarah Carrier's house. Do you remember Sarah
Carrier from earlier? She's the one who did
laundry for the Taylors. Who told the truth. Who had the real story. Sarah, yeah. Sarah's son, Sylvester Carrier, he also lived in the house with her. Now, there was some
tension between Sylvester and the people of the white community, because he was known for
speaking up for himself and protecting the women in his family. Which I know, what's wrong with that? There's absolutely nothing,
good for him, good for him. I know, I agree with you. But again, this is the 1920s. It wasn't quote-unquote "smart"
to stand up for yourself or others towards a white person. Unless you wanted some issues. So, with all of that being
said, it's kinda not surprising when the posse looked at
Sylvester as their next target. Now, in addition to an
angry mob coming their way, Sylvester and Sarah also
had another problem. They were keeping a lot of
children from the community within their home, although
the exact number wasn't known. You see, their home was close to a swamp, which in turn made a
great location to hide because it provided
cover and it wasn't easy to walk around in, making
it hard to be followed or even get caught. Unfortunately, this swamp would come to be their best protection. On the fourth day of
this riot, January 4th, the white mob is headed
for the Carrier home. Sylvester wasn't going to
just hide and do nothing. He was going to defend
himself, his family, the children, his property. And it was about to get violent. When the mob gets to the Carrier's house, the first thing they do, I'm sorry but they
shoot the Carrier's dog. I know, they just like
freakin' shoot the dog. One of the guys in the mob,
he's calls out to Sylvester. He's like, "Hey, come out
here and present yourself. Come face us." So, some time goes by and
they're getting no response. So, now they're frustrated,
they're pissed off. Two of the white men from the mob, they decide to walk up onto the porch and start kicking down the front door. These two men were Henry
Andrews and Poly Wilkerson. And it's Wilkerson who ends
up kicking in the front door. So inside the home with
Sylvester and Sarah amongst the children, there
was a nine year old girl named Minnie Lee Mitchel Langley. She said that Sylvester
saved her that day. Minnie recalled when Sylvester
put her in a safe spot under the stairway while
they got ready to fight. She also said that he got
behind her at one point, put a gun on her shoulder
pointing it at the front door, and waited for Poly Wilkerson
to kick the door down. And when Poly finally
kicked that door down, Sylvester started shooting
to defend themselves. They would end up killing
both Andrews and Wilkerson. Great, you know, good. (Bailey laughing)
Can I say that? Well, I did. But listen, once the mob realized
that Andrews and Wilkerson were shot and killed, it was not good. They were raging, okay? They were livid. They were fuming. And a gunfight then ensued. Sadly, Sarah Carrier
and her son, Sylvester, in the middle of this crossfire, were both tragically murdered. The mob keeps shooting and
they don't frickin' care who they're hitting. The only reason they
eventually stopped firing was because they ran out of bullets. Great. Now, we don't know how many
men, women, and children hiding in the house with Sarah an
Sylvester survived, if any. But what we do know is
that the ones who were able to sneak out of the house, they went and they hid in the swamp. They escaped, but not
before they saw things that they wouldn't ever forget. One of the children, Arnett Goins, spoke later about their
struggle to escape. Goins said he remembers them
staying out for two or three long January nights in the cold swamp, scared for their lives. But after days of waiting, they
were able to escape the mob. Now, the guys in the mob
are pumped with adrenaline and anger and they are ready
to cause more destruction. They decided to set fire
across several houses and a church on their way back home. So this was no longer
about Fannie, or Jesse, this was just a mission to
destroy any property owned by the black community in Rosewood
and the surrounding areas. With the mob on the move,
the black people living in Rosewood began to
flee the town in a hurry. They knew that the mob would
be coming back wanting revenge for the murder of Andrews and Wilkerson. They weren't gonna just let that go. So, many hid in the cover of
the swamp like the kids did, thinking it would be hard to find them or catch them in there. Within Rosewood lived a
man named John Wright. Now, John Wright was well known
within the black community. He was a white man, but he
was friendly to his neighbors. Again, this is a different
time period, right? And John, he wanted to help protect them in their time of need. He's seeing out his window
what's going down in Rosewood, and he wants to open up his
door and help the community. These are his neighbors,
his friends, his family. He can't just sit back and watch it. Because John was white
the mob didn't even think about burning down his house. No, no they did not. They were like nope,
he's white, he's good. Save his house, but burn
all these over here. There were also white families
in Sumner who sheltered and protected people who they knew, often people who worked for them. Friday morning on January 5th, 1923, it's now day five of
the Rosewood Massacre. Things have been pretty bad so far, but shit's about to get even more real. 200 armed white men come
storming into Rosewood. And they're coming from all over the state to be a part of this action. With those 200 armed white men, some were even members
of the Ku Klux Klan. As you can probably
imagine, this is not good. This is very bad. Why are they even here? How did they get here? Like, why are they here? What are they doing here? There isn't even much
information as to how these guys knew what was going on, but what we do know is
that they showed up. So, the group, it's gotten
a lot larger, right? And they were causing way
more damage and destruction. They burned more homes, they
burned the second church, the Masonic lodge, and
freakin' the schoolhouse. They even burned the baseball field too. Just everything. Complete and utter destruction. Everything is gone except
John Wright's house. So, at this point, it's
hard to know how many black residents are
still left in their town. Those who could, they ran for the swamp. But unfortunately, those who were too old or sick to run, they were trapped there. And the members of the
mob shot them on sight. Such as Lexie Gordon, she
was a Rosewood resident. She ran from her burning home that day, trying to escape when she was
shot in the back and killed. Not just killed, she was murdered. The same day, a man named Mingo
Williams was also murdered. He was shot in the head. He wasn't even from Rosewood. He was literally just in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Mingo was the seventh recorded
person to die in Rosewood. So far there's Sam
Carter, Sylvester Carrier, his mother Sarah, Lexie
Gordon and now Mingo Williams who are killed by the
mob, murdered by the mob, and then there's Henry
Andrews and Poly Wilkerson who were killed while
storming the Carrier house. So, in the early hours of day
six, it's around 4:00 a.m., some help finally comes
for those who were trying to escape this destruction. By this time, word got out
about what was going on in Rosewood and everybody
was talking about it, right? Brothers John and William
Bryce also got word about what was taking place in Rosewood. I know, I know, I know, I
know, it's a lot of names I'm throwing at you, but who
are John and William Bryce? Okay, well, they worked as
train conductors who happen to pass through the Rosewood
train station all of the time. And the Rosewood train station
was one of the only things that wasn't burnt down. So when they found out what
was happening, taking place, what was going down in Rosewood, they knew that they had to
help out their community. So the brothers pulled
their train into the station to allow women and children
who had been hiding in the swamp, hop on the
train and get the heck out of Rosewood as fast as they could. With a train full of people,
the Bryce brothers stopped in different cities along the route, allowing the survivors
to get off the train and attempt to begin their
lives again in a new city. They had left everything
behind, they escaped near-death, and now they were forced to live in fear and never return to their
homes in Rosewood again. To this day, some of the
victims' descendants still live in the nearby towns that they went to, like Gainesville, Florida. Now, let's take a little
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(light eerie music) On Sunday, January 6th,
1923, this is the sixth and final day of the Rosewood Massacre. The angry posse-turned-mob that
had burned most of Rosewood and left a path of
destruction in its wake, was now setting out to
finish what they started. They wanted to burn down any property left and kill any black residents
who had not escaped. So, they come across
James Carrier on the road. James was Sarah's brother
and Sylvester's uncle, and he was partially
paralyzed from a stroke. While Sarah and Sylvester
had bravely held down the fort during the attack, he
had escaped with the children and had also hidden
with them in the swamp. After it seemed like the
danger might have passed, so he gets up and he leaves the swamp, hoping to return to
his home and just kinda figure it out from there, right? But unfortunately, James,
he wouldn't make it. Some members of the mob,
they surrounded him, they marched him to the local
cemetery where they then shot and murdered him right
next to the fresh graves of Sarah and Sylvester. I know, I know, this is awful. I know, I know, I know. After the murder of James,
the mob just kept setting fire to all of the homes and buildings until literally there's nothing left. Rosewood was completely wiped. It was destroyed. It was gone. With that being said, what we
know for sure is that at least eight people died during
the Rosewood Massacre, but what hasn't been
recorded is the trauma on the community for decades to come. And I should add, it's
believed that there a lot more victims than just eight, but
there are eight on record. So, a few weeks go by
and in February of 1923, someone finally speaks
up and they're like, "Hey, something just happened over here that maybe we should talk about." So they bring it to the
attention of a grand jury. The way a grand jury
worked, at least back then, was that a prosecutor presents
a case to a group of citizens and they can ask questions
and investigate the situation, and they get to decide if they think anyone should be charged with a crime. It sounds pretty fair, right? The thought of it, the idea
of it sounds pretty fair. But, in 1923, unfortunately, this jury would have been all white. So, not a surprise when they
didn't see anything wrong with what had taken place in Rosewood, and they chose not to press any charges. No one involved in the massacre
was found guilty of a crime. In fact to make things even worse, no one was even arrested
for these murders! It took until the 1931
case of the Scottsboro Boys for any kind of solid law
pushback to stop black people from being excluded from being jurors. This case, which involved
nine black teenagers accused of allegedly raping a white woman, had not just one trial but a series, with all kinds of reversals,
dismissals, retrials. I mean, it lasted over two decades. This whole thing is a wild story. Again, we're definitely
gonna have to do it for another time. But after it was discovered
that there were no black people in the jury records, there
were names that had been forged to make it look like there was. Aka they lied. They forged 'em. Do you get what I'm saying? You get it. Once they realized that
the names had been forged, did the Supreme Court say the Alabama Jury selection process was unconstitutional, because it was all-white and it excluded black people on purpose. This of course, didn't get
rid of the all-white juries, but it was a start. And that's important, because in Florida, all-white juries were 16%
more likely to convict black defendants than white defendants. And that's not looking good when you are looking for a fair trial. Fair trial. Like, come on, you guys. No. But besides all of that, the cherry on top of this whole story, all
the records relating to the Rosewood Massacre were lost. Gone. Poof. Disappeared. There are no records as to what happened. Yeah, no, no, there's no records. There's no records as to
what took place in Rosewood. The only way we are able to
tell this story of history is by word of mouth. Now, we're gonna pause for a break. (light eerie music) This summer is showing welcoming signs of a more normal life ahead. Finally you can get back to
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(light eerie music) For the survivors of
the Rosewood Massacre, the fear from that day, it lingered. Okay, as I said before, many
relocated to other towns in Florida and none of
them would end up returning to live in Rosewood. Some of the victims even went
as far as changing their names when they moved because they
were afraid that the people in the mob, they weren't
gonna stop looking for them, they were gonna continue to hunt them down until they killed them. So, the survivors, the people of Rosewood, they were living in
constant fear, you know? They're always watching their back thinking these guys are
gonna come for them. And I think we can both
agree that's no way to live. Arnett Doctor, Sarah
Carrier's great grandson, said that within the family home there was a strict set of rules that
nobody brought up the massacre, nobody talked about it unless
the elders brought it up. You just didn't. On top of that, many of those
who participated in the mob were still alive and Arnett,
he recalled that his mother, she knew some of them by their name. It was just psychological
trauma and fear that would be passed on throughout these
families for generations to come. The stories from that day lived on within the black community. Not forgiven and definitely not forgotten. There's a saying that
those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. So while the story was
not widely broadcasted, there are those who made
it a mission to make sure that this massacre did not slip away or be forgotten in the sands of time. Even without that, the fear
and the trauma from this period would affect the survivors' lives forever. Aside from the emotional
scars, the pain, the mourning, the fear, there was a huge
loss of property and wealth. Which, okay, I know what you're thinking, property and wealth is
nothing in comparison to losing loved ones,
but it was what they had to pass down to their
children or to their families. And because the people in Rosewood, they weren't millionaires, you know? They owned their own businesses,
houses, and their own land, that's what they had. That's what they had to their names. All of that was taken from
them and burnt to the ground. They weren't just robbed
of the land or structures, they were robbed of leaving their legacies and their chance to leave what
they built to their children. So, and you're not mishearing
me with this next sentence. 71 years go by, yes, 71 years go by, finally, the Rosewood
Massacre would properly, I'm saying that sarcastically,
be acknowledged. So, the survivors, they received
some money if they could prove that they were direct descendants of Rosewood property owners. These checks are little
more than insult to injury, and some were as little as $100 or less, which is like, avocado, thanks. This was actually the first
bill in the United States that compensated the black community for a past racial injustice. The black and Hispanic caucuses,
or groups of lawmakers, they pushed hard to get this recognition. In 2020, yeah, you heard
me right, 2020, babe, the state of Florida started a scholarship for the direct descendants. It would only pay for some of the students to attend college, but
Florida also put together a formal commission which would
be dedicated to researching the history of this tragedy. Not only that, it would
allow the descendants to share their stories in their own words and their voices could finally be heard. So, you're probably wondering
like what happened to Fannie? There is no record that
Fannie ever came clean about the lie that she spread. Fannie never told the truth. Fannie, you got something to say? Let us know. We're watching you, Fannie. What remains of Rosewood today? Maybe like there's a big monument where you can show your
respects to or something. You know? Well, for a small town that
once had about give or take 300 people living in it,
most people have since left and gone to different communities
in the surrounding area and again when we said
they never came back, they never came back. There's only one house
left standing in Rosewood, and guess who's house that is. John Wright's house. Yeah, him! John Wright, remember? He was the man who opened
his door to the community as like a safe house. His house is still there.
(Bailey chuckling) I'm laughing because ain't
that some shit, you know? Like, wow. You would think this would be some kind of historical monument in Rosewood, right? Right, you would think that, right? You would think that, right? Well, in 2020, so again, last year, the house, it was actually up for sale and it was sold to some
random ass family in 2020, which is totally fine. Like you're totally allowed, yeah. But aren't you surprised that this house isn't a monument or anything? You know, like maybe
protected by the state because it's all that's left of Rosewood. You would think, right? It's what's left of the Rosewood Massacre. You'd think it would be considered a historical monument, right? Okay, great, we're all on the same page. I'm glad you agree. Well, the Rosewood Heritage Foundation, they've tried to reach out
to the family who moved into John Wright's home, but they
haven't heard any response. The future of this historical
home, it remains unclear. I just don't know, I don't get it. Do you get it? I don't get it. Do you get it? This moment in history
is just awful, right? Unfortunately though,
it's kind of familiar. It sounds a lot like
the Tulsa Race Massacre. The Tulsa Race Massacre took
place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, and it also started as a reaction to a young black boy who was accused of hurting a white woman, and all of these murders
and rioters destroyed Tulsa. Again, if you've never heard
about the Tulsa Race Massacre, I would highly recommend that after this you should take a moment
and educate yourself on what happened. I did a full video on
it over on my YouTube if you wanna check that out. But I would highly suggest you do research and educate yourself on it too. But stories like today,
it just showcases decades of violence with effects
that still persist today. We need to make sure that we
are keeping history honest and transparent because without that we're doomed to repeat it. And look, it wasn't until frickin' 2020 that they started this foundation
to help the descendants. And yes, that's amazing,
that's incredible, and they've been working so hard to get acknowledgment for it, but at the same time you're
like, what took them so long? I think that's a great question. People like Dr. Edward
Gonzalez-Tennant makes sure that the story is kept alive, passed on for generations to come, and the communities'
voices are indeed heard. He started the Rosewood
Heritage and VR Project, or virtualrosewood.com. If you are curious to learn more, the link in the show
credits/description box. But this project, it's incredible. It's dedicated to the Rosewood
victims and making sure that their story is never forgotten since our history books seem
to have left that section out. You know? These foundations keep
the conversation ongoing by building a movement to
build memoriams and landmarks, even working towards
trying to make Rosewood a National Historic Landmark. There has been talks
about building museums and exhibits in Florida,
I mean as they should. But for now, there is a sign in Rosewood, sponsored by the Real Rosewood Foundation, that does share the horrific
events that took place in Rosewood in 1923. And that, my friends,
is the horrible, awful, dark history of the Rosewood Massacre. (Bailey sighs) It's heavy, huh? Stories like this can be
really uncomfortable, you know, very uncomfortable, but they're important. How can we ever learn
and grow if we don't know where we've been? And the Rosewood Massacre
is a fraction of what's been taking place in our country
for a very long time. In the story notes, I'm gonna
put some further reading if you wanna learn more
and become more educated with the Rosewood Massacre. I would love to hear from you guys. So, if you have Twitter,
let's scadoodle over there, and let's continue this conversation. Use the hashtag #DarkHistory. I would love to hear your thoughts. If you learned from this
story, you can also join me over on my YouTube where
you can watch these episodes after the podcast airs and also catch "Murder Mystery and Make Up,"
which drops every Monday. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. I hope you have a great
rest of your day ahead. Please make good choices, okay? And I'll be talking to you next week. Bye. Dark History is an Audioboom Original. Dark History is Executive Produced by Chelsea Durgin from Slash Management and Fanny Baudry, Derrial Christon, and Spencer Strasmore from Wheelhouse DNA. Video Director, Trent Barboza. Producer, Lexxi Kiven. Research provided by Elizabeth Hyman. Writer, Haley Gordon. And I'm your host, I'm gonna give myself some credit too for writing. Thank you so much. Bailey Sarian. Historical Consultants for
today's episode was provided by Dr. Edward Gonzalez-Tennant,
Professor of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, and Dr. Maxine Jones,
Professor of History, Florida State University. Without you, we couldn't
keep this story alive. Thank you so much for helping
us continue the conversation here on Dark History.
(light eerie music)
