Rosewood Massacre: Florida Black Town Destroyed

In January 1923, white mobs from surrounding Levy County, Florida attacked Rosewood, an all-Black community, after white woman Fannie Taylor falsely claimed a Black man had assaulted her. At least six Black residents and two white men were killed; the actual death toll is believed higher. Every Black-owned structure in Rosewood was burned. Survivors fled into surrounding swamps and were rescued by sympathetic white neighbors. The community never returned. Florida paid $2.1 million in reparations to survivors and descendants in 1994.