The Hidden History of the Ocoee Election Day Massacre
The single bloodiest day in modern American political history that you’ve probably never heard about
100 years ago on November 2, 1920, countless Black Americans were terrorized and murdered simply for trying to exercise their right to vote.
Mose Norman and Julius “July” Perry were two prosperous Black landowners in Ocoee, Florida, a rural city located in Orange County. They led local voter registration efforts in the weeks leading up to the election. However, when Norman turned up to the polls to cast his ballot, he was repeatedly forced away by a violent white mob.
The mob, accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan, White WWI veterans, and reinforcements from the county, then invaded July Perry’s home where Norman was thought to be hiding, murdered Perry, and hung his body near the highway. Norman was never found.
Countless others were killed that day and in days following the election as the homes and business of Black people were burned to the ground, and their owners and residents were driven out of the city. The Black Ocoee residents lost not only lives, but homeownership, businesses, and land they would’ve inherited or passed down to future generations. They lost memories. The entire history of African Americans in…
