The Real Rosewood

Survivors, descendents return to Rosewood seeking healing

By DIRK LAMMERS, Associated Press, 2004

ROSEWOOD — It’s been 81 years since Robie Allenetta Robinson Mortin set foot here, but little is left of the town in which she grew up. On Jan. 1, 1923, a lynch mob descended onto the predominantly black township and hanged her uncle, Samuel Carter. Mortin’s father whisked the 8-year-old girl and her sister onto a train that carried many residents to safety as a mob burned Rosewood to the ground.

“We could see the flames from Chiefland,” about 25 miles away, recalls Mortin, 89. “Why? Why burn down the houses? The children should have had some place to come home.”

Mortin returned Thursday to gather with more than 100 people at the site of the massacre for a “peace and healing” ceremony, organized by Rosewood descendent Lizzie Jenkins.

Jenkins, president of the Archer-based Real Rosewood Foundation, says it’s the first time survivors and descendants have marked an anniversary together.

“I felt it was time to come back for healing, peace, forgiveness and preservation,” she says. “When we preserve Rosewood’s history, we preserve America.”

What’s left of Rosewood is hard to find, nestled among scrub pines and palmetto off State Road 24, about 10 miles east of Cedar Key.

Just one organization — a Baptist church — uses the Rosewood name, and only a small green sign on eastbound State Road 24 acknowledges the former settlement.

At Rosewood Community Park on Thursday, pastors prayed for forgiveness and descendants lit candles and released white balloons for each of the victims.

Proclamations and letters were read from Gov. Jeb Bush and other politicians, and participants sang, “We Shall Overcome.”

Records say six blacks and two whites killed during the massacre, but many descendants suspect as many as 37 died in the attack.

“There were many stories told that there was a mass grave, and I believe it,” Mortin says.

In 1993, the Florida Legislature approved a bill giving the survivors and descendants $2.1 million. A scholarship was created at Florida A&M University to study racial injustice.

A historical marker will be placed on the roadside later this year near the John Wright House, the only Rosewood landmark that remains. Wright was a white merchant who helped hide survivors until others could arrange getting them out of town.

Some of the other heroes who helped protect Rosewood residents escape were white. They included Levy County Sheriff Bob Walker, who worked 96 hours straight to help as many residents as he could get out of Rosewood alive.

Walker’s niece, Phoebe Walker Hughes, only started learning about her uncle and Rosewood five years ago when she began researching her lineage.

“Those things were not talked about,” she said.

She rented the 1997 John Singleton movie “Rosewood,” and she and her daughter were horrified at the story. They tracked Jenkins down on the Internet.

Jenkins attempts to chronicle Rosewood’s history began about 10 years ago. Her aunt, Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier, was the town’s schoolteacher and was determined to keep the stories alive and accurate.

Jenkins, through her organization, plans to build a museum and introduce a scholarship in her aunt’s name. She also hopes to return to the site next year with the Rosewood anniversary recognized as a national holiday.

“It’s already a holiday,” she said.

Ceremony to mark 81st anniversary of Rosewood massacre

By Associated Press
January 1, 2004

ROSEWOOD — A “peace and healing” ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the Rosewood massacre, in which a black settlement in Levy County was destroyed by a white mob, will be held Thursday to remember those killed and preserve their history.Lizzie Jenkins, a Rosewood descendant and president of the Real Rosewood Foundation, called the attack “one of the bloodiest acts of terrorism in the state, resulting in seven recorded deaths, injuries, shattered dreams, derailed lives, burglarized homes and the burning down of the town.”

“It is a time in history for healing, forgiving and preservation. When we preserve Rosewood’s history, we preserve America’s history.”

The horror began New Year’s morning 1923, when a married white woman, Fannie Taylor, emerged bruised and beaten from her home and accused a black man of beating her.

As word spread, angry whites besieged Rosewood and its 120 residents, burning nearly every structure in a week of destruction. The number of people killed during the massacre remains controversial. State records say six blacks and two whites were killed while descendants speak of mass graves containing as many as 37 bodies of women and children.

One of the four survivors of the massacre, Robie Martin of Riviera Beach, and descendants of other survivors are expected to attend the ceremonies, scheduled at noon Thursday.

Those attending will light candles and release baloons in memory of those killed. Letters and proclamations will be read from Gov. Jeb Bush, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Attorney General Charlie Crist.

“We did not ask for an apology,” said Jenkins, who lives in Archer. “We are not going to accuse or blame somebody. It’s history and it deserves its place in history.”

A historical marker will be placed on the roadside early next year near the John Wright House, the only landmark still in Rosewood, Jenkins said. Wright was a store merchant in whose house survivors hid until they could escape by train.

In 1993, the Florida Legislature approved a bill giving the survivors and descendants $2.1 million. Also, a scholarship was created at Florida A&M University to study racial injustice.

Jenkins said the ceremony will consecrate the grounds of the former community, which was the subject of a 1997 John Singleton movie, “Rosewood.”