Lynching of July Perry / Racial Violence in America

Marker Text: On Election Day, November 3, 1920, black residents in the Ocoee area who owned land and businesses were eager to vote. Despite a terrorizing Ku Klux Klan march through the streets of Orlando three days earlier, Mose Norman and other African Americans attempted to vote. They were turned away. After seeking advice from Orlando Judge John Cheney, Mr. Norman again attempted to vote. Armed white men stationed at the polls immediately assaulted him. He reportedly fled to the home of his friend and business associate, July Perry. A mob seeking to capture Mr. Perry and Mr. Norman surrounded and burned Mr. Perry’s home. Mr. Norman escaped, but Mr. Perry was severely wounded. He was arrested, taken to Orlando, and locked in the Orange County Jail. The next morning, a lynch mob took Mr. Perry from his cell, brutally beat him, and hanged him within sight of Judge Cheney’s home. His lifeless body was shot repeatedly. Over the next two days, a white mob burned 25 black homes, two black churches, and a masonic lodge in Ocoee. Estimates of the total number of black Americans killed during the violence range from six to over 30. Survivors fled, never to return. The entire black community of Ocoee was driven out within a year, forced to abandon or sell land and homes they owned. The Ocoee Election Day Massacre represents one of the bloodiest days in American political history. July Perry is buried in Orlando’s Greenwood Cemetery.