The Real Rosewood

Courtesy of the Gainesville Sun
by Cleveland Tinker
Special to THE GUARDIAN

It was an evening with Rosewood families and friends and recognition of unsung heroes at the Real Rosewood Foundation Inc.’s second annual awards dinner held Saturday in Gainesville.

The theme was remembering the legacy of Rosewood, and organizers said that preserving Rosewood’s history was akin to preserving America’s history.

“It is very important to get the truth out about the Rosewood incident because I want people to know the truth,” said Lizzie R. Jenkins, executive director of the Real Rosewood Foundation Inc., which is based in Archer.

Jenkins said it is important to recognize the unsung heroes of Rosewood that helped many black residents escape from the small Levy County town in 1923, when a white woman falsely accused a black man of raping her. As a result of the accusation, James Taylor, the husband of the alleged victim, formed a mob that terrorized the black community, killing five blacks.

“Had it not been for the unsung heroes of Rosewood in 1923, my family members and other Rosewood citizens would have perished or died,” said Jenkins. “It is one way in and one way out of Rosewood. Sheriff (Robert) Walker worked 96 hours straight without sleep, begging people to help him get black people out of Rosewood safely.”

Phoebe Walker Hughes is the niece of the late Levy County sheriff, and she was presented with an Unsung Heroes Award in her uncle’s honor.

Hughes said she found out about Jenkins’ foundation from her daughter, who had seen a movie about Rosewood. They knew their uncle had been a sheriff in the town, and searched the Internet to find out about the movie. Their search led them to Jenkins.

Jenkins said Hughes’ daughter, Lee Yarborough, wrote her and apologized if her family had harmed anybody during the riot.

“I wrote her back and told her that her uncle saved a lot of lives,” said Jenkins, who would eventually begin corresponding with Hughes. “My reason for embracing the white Rosewood descendants is because my foundation is inclusive.”

Other awards given out was the William C. Bryce Unsung Heroes Award presented to his great-granddaughter, Margaret Kruse. The John Bryce Unsung Heroes Award was presented to his great-great-grandniece, Allison Piliod. The Bryces helped Walker protect blacks, according to Jenkins.

The Sarah Carrier Humanitarian Award was presented to Alachua Vice-Mayor Bonnie Burgess “for her tireless work in support and belief in her hometown of Alachua, the same as Sarah Carrier supported and believed in her hometown of Rosewood…”

“It is awesome. I am truly honored to have been chosen for this award,” said Burgess, a candidate for the state House of Representatives seat being vacated by Ed Jennings Jr. “When Liz called me and told me the board had chosen me, I thought it was a prank call.”

The Aaron Carrier Humanitarian Award was presented to John M. Jenkins, Liz Jenkins’ husband, “for supporting her tireless efforts to tell the Rosewood story…”

The Sylvester Carrier Humanitarian Award was presented to Charles Goston “for embracing and respecting the image of his community…”

The Ola Mae Hines Humanitarian Award went to Andrew Hines, “corresponding to his mother’s patience, guidance and strength to survive…”

The Ernest M. Blocker Pioneer Award was presented to his son Ronald Blocker, the event’s guest speaker. Blocker, a Rosewood descendant, is superintendent of the Orange County Public Schools.

Proceeds from the banquet will help fund the creation of the Rosewood Museum, which will be located in Archer.

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.

By KAREN VOYLES, Sun staff writer

	Photo by Rob C. Witzel / The Gainesville Sun

izzie Jenkins has spent a decade sorting through musty files in her search for details to confirm what happened to her aunt and uncle when the predominantly black Levy County town of Rosewood was burned to the ground in 1923. On Saturday, as part of the kickoff for Celebration of African History and Culture Month in Gainesville, Jenkins will be signing copies of the 250-page book she wrote detailing her research.

“This is really my mom’s project because she wanted her sister - the Rosewood schoolteacher - to have her place in history and be remembered,” Jenkins said. “What I have done really is to keep a journal of my research. My next volume will be the narrative about Rosewood, but this one is really a chronology of how I found what I found.”

Rosewood was established between Otter Creek and Cedar Key along what is now State Road 24. The town was destroyed after a white woman accused a black man - Jenkins’ uncle - of rape. The ensuing days of violence left several inhabitants dead and others fleeing into the surrounding woods with only the clothes they were wearing.

For 70 years, those who escaped the atrocity rarely spoke of what happened. When the Florida Legislature began looking into the violence, researchers documented that the sheriff and governor knew what was happening at Rosewood and did nothing to stop the brutality.

In 1994, lawmakers approved a $2 million compensation package to be distributed among the few remaining survivors and the descendants of others who could document their connection to Rosewood in 1923.

“My aunt, Mahulda Carrier, was married to the man they accused of the rape, Aaron Carrier,” Jenkins said. Aaron Carrier was the first target of the mob of white men. After being beaten, he was secreted away by Levy County Sheriff Elias R. “Bob” Walker.

Mahulda Carrier, one of the town’s teachers, was also able to escape, then spent the rest of her life trying to recover. She and Aaron later divorced, and she moved often and would change her name frequently, Jenkins said. She would talk about the incident rarely, only in a whisper and only to people she trusted, like Jenkins’ mother, Theresa Robinson.

Before Robinson died in 1997, she made her wishes clear to Jenkins.

“She wanted me to tell the truth about her sister,” Jenkins said. “She told me ‘Don’t vent your anger,’ and to ‘remain humble, but tell the story.’ ”

A retired Alachua County teacher with a master’s degree, Jenkins was already a competent researcher when she met Toni Collins, the historic records coordinator for the Levy County Clerk’s Office.

“Rosewood is still a sensitive subject in Levy County and we can’t rewrite history, but Liz (Jenkins) was very professional about her research,” Collins said. “She would come in and have a narrow focus so I would know exactly what records to help her find.”

Along the way Jenkins also met descendants of some of the white people involved in Rosewood, people she now refers to as “my white family.” They include nieces and nephews of Rosewood’s merchant, John Wright, as well as granddaughters of the Bryce brothers who conducted the train that many survivors rode to escape, and the grandchildren of Sheriff Walker.

Jenkins said the white descendents have been as horrified and she and other black descendants were about the incident, but have agreed that she should tell her aunt’s story as accurately as possible.

Jenkins said some of the white descendants have told her they will attend her book signing. The event is scheduled for Saturday in Gainesville’s Downtown Community Plaza from 11:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Karen Voyles can be reached at (352) 486-5058 or voylesk@gvillesun.com.