It’s been 100 years. One hundred years since Black-Americans attempted to exercise their right to vote. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre is the largest act of voting day terrorism to date.
Ocoee, Florida is located in Orange County in Central Florida. At the time, Black-Americans made up about 46% of the population. Of the population were Moses ‘Mose’ Norman and Julius ‘July’ Perry, settlers from South Carolina, who’d relocated to the area in the late 1800s had both become very successful.
Leading up to Election Day, the Klan continued their tactics to suppress and intimidate Black voters from exercising their right to vote by marching through the streets and threatening violence if voters showed up at the polls.
John Cheney, Norman returned to the polls to attempt voting again and capture the names of anyone being turned away and the officials involved in turning voters away. Norman was denied again and subjected to a search and seizure of a shotgun found in his car.
Mr. Perry was captured and transported to the hospital to treat his wound and was subsequently taken from the custody of a sheriff by the angry mob. Perry was lynched, shot, and strung up on a lamp post.
