The Real Rosewood

Courtesy of the Gainesville Sun

The small town of Rosewood was forever changed one night in 1923.

My ancestry goes a long way back in both Levy County and Alachua County. For the past 15 years I have worked unceasingly to document and present our shared history of Rosewood.

“You must keep the ‘leg’ in our legacy,” instructed my once enslaved great grandmother, Lizzie Polly, the family’s matriarch and “once upon a time” storyteller who migrated to Archer in 1839 from Jackson, Mississippi, at age 13.

Born into a family of transgenerational historians and storytellers, it was my destiny to become a fifth generation storyteller and historian. My mother named me Lizzie Polly (Robinson) after my great grandmother. I am a direct descendant of Rosewood, the predominantly black Levy County township that was destroyed in a week-long rampage of racial violence in 1923. I was first initiated into the story of Rosewood in 1943, at age 5. As a youngster, I took Rosewood memories to bed with me each night and to school with me each day. I would carry them with me to work, college and church. I was groomed to keep our history accurate and relevant.

My parents, Ura and Theresa Robinson, taught their children that “knowledge is power” and that education is essential. My mother, keeper of our oral history, told me that an aspect of my life’s mission was to research and share the true history of the Rosewood massacre; to be a voice for justice for the survivors and descendants, both black and white. I was to serve as a bridge for healing racial wounds in our culture.

She told me: “When you tell Rosewood’s story, remain open-minded and don’t allow your personal feelings to take control over truth, making certain Mahulda (her sister) has her place in Rosewood’s history.” She perceived that I would meet and embrace white Rosewood descendants as well, taking history to the next level.

On New Years Day, 1923, Rosewood would be forever changed by racism. My aunt, the Rosewood school teacher, and other survivors say a white woman living in nearby Sumner falsely accused my uncle, a Rosewood resident, of attacking her. A mob came to the small town, burning homes, looting property, and killing five black members of the community. However, had it not been for the white unsung heroes (who will be honored at our upcoming awards dinner on Saturday), the Rosewood citizens would not have survived.

Many miles I have traveled in search of the truth, facing bigotry and intimidation tactics intended to thwart the accurate investigation and documentation of this thread in our national heritage.

I received the NAACP Pioneer Award in honor of my ancestors. I worked for the erection of a state historic marker in Rosewood, which was begun by Gov. Lawton Chiles and completed by Gov. Jeb Bush.

“This marker will ensure that Rosewood is remembered and that when the voice of the last survivor is stilled, we will all bear witness to what happened here and learn the lessons of its legacy,” said Gov. Bush.

In 2005 we held the first annual Rosewood Awards Dinner in memory of all Rosewood survivors and descendants. The Second Annual Rosewood Awards Dinner will be held on March 11 at the Paramount Plaza Hotels and Suites, 2900 SW 13th St., in Gainesville. For information about the event, e-mail me at lizzieprj@aol.com. or call (352) 495-2197.

Ronald Blocker, superintendent of the Orange County School System and a Rosewood descendant, will be our keynote speaker. Dr. James M. Davidson and doctoral student Edward Tennant, of the University of Florida Department of Anthropology, are assisting in the process of remembering Rosewood through archival research and a potential archaeological investigation of the former town site.

At the March 11 dinner they will make a presentation of their findings. At the request of my 91-year-old uncle, my next goal is to build a Brown Connection Center on a stunning 29-acre Archer property that we own jointly - the homestead of the Rosewood schoolteacher. The center will honor the memory of innocent men, women and children who suffered or died in the Rosewood massacre.

During Black History Month this year, I escorted students from Jordan Glen School, Job Corp, SIATech, and Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church to Rosewood. I shared the Rosewood story with students at the PACE school for girls, Oak Hall High School and Santa Fe Community College.

Students from Job Corp were so intrigued with the all-white Shiloh Cemetery in Sumner, where Rosewood Store Merchant John Wright is buried, they volunteered to adopt his gravesite and put a state-of-the-art headstone in place.

My parents, especially my mother, strongly influenced me never to vent anger when telling the Rosewood story. For unless we remember, our children will not understand. When we preserve Rosewood’s history, we preserve America’s history.

Lizzie R. Jenkins is President of The Real Rosewood Foundation, Inc., in Archer. She can be contacted at lizzieprj@aol.com. or at 352-495-2197.

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.