Courtesy of Palm Beach Post
by Kara Kam

TALLAHASSEE — When Gov. Charlie Crist met with Florida National Guard troops in his office Tuesday, he discovered he and an Air Force communications specialist in the group had a common interest.

As a state senator, Crist chaired a subcommittee charged with approving $2 million to pay the descendents of the nine survivors of the 1923 racial massacre in Rosewood that resulted in the destruction of the North Florida black community and the deaths of at least eight of its residen

David Johnson, one of the guardsmen who met with Crist and Florida National Guard Adjutant Maj. Gen. Douglas Burnett, is the grandson of one of the Rosewood survivors.

The office meeting preceded a tour that Burnett gave Crist of National Guard equipment parked in the Capitol courtyard for National Guard Day. During the tour, Crist told the guardsmen he was seeking federal money to improve the Florida Guard’s equipment as he had promised in an earlier meeting.

Before the tour, Crist learned that Johnson’s grandmother was 3 years old when Rosewood was burned to the ground by a white mob after a white woman reported she was raped by a black man.

After more than seven decades, the families of the survivors received compensation that Crist said, borrowing a term used by civil rights leaders, was “justice delayed.”

The conversation prompted Crist to suggest to Johnson that they call his grandmother, launching a campaign-like scene in which the Air Force reservist, clad in camouflage fatigues, and Crist, wearing khaki trousers and a light blue button-down shirt, huddled over a telephone dialing Johnson’s grandmother, Daisy.

Despite three attempts, the 80-year-old Leesburg woman’s phone rang busy.

Crist then called Johnson’s father, only to get Larkin Johnson’s voice mail. Crist left a message for the landscaper.

“Hey Larkin, this is Charlie Crist talking,” Crist said on speaker phone. “It’s about 12:30 on Tuesday. I’m here with your son, David, and we just wanted to talk to you about the Rosewood case. He was telling me that you shared the fact with him that it included your family and we just had a nice conversation about justice. If you get a chance, I’d love to visit with you,” Crist said before providing his personal cellphone number. “Thank you, sir. You have a great son.”