Ocoee Election Day Massacre

By Don Valentine  

      Every citizen of color should know the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights. The 15th states, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” In 1870 Congress ratified Black’s [former Slaves or Freemen] right to vote federally, and by all states in the Union.

U.S. history repeats the fact that Right will not always beat Might.   The historychannel.com summarized this, “Despite the amendment, within a few years numerous discriminatory practices were used to prevent Black citizens from exercising their right to vote, especially in the South.” The insidious Jim Crow tactics of fictitious poll taxes, esoteric literacy tests and brute force were used to prevent voting.

Ocoee, next to Orlando, witnessed these tools combined to instigate the notorious 1920 “Voting Day Massacre.” Moses Norman, a prominent man in the Black community, went to exercise his 15th amendment right to vote. White poll workers promptly turned him away, informing him that he had failed to pay a $1 poll tax. He consulted Orlando Judge John Cheney, who advised him of his rights and he returned. The members of the Klan were incensed and a menacing crowd stopped his attempt.

That night an angry White mob came to Julius Perry, his business partner, house looking for Moses. Julius was lynched and hung outside of the house of Judge Cheney The  Orlando Sentinel described that cowardly action, “…the deputized mob and white volunteers burned 25 Black homes, two churches and a fraternal lodge. The total number dead is still unknown.” For over 50 years the story was that this was a race riot. Once again “His-Story” is not the Story.

Claire Strom, a Rollins College history professor, said “An exact account of what happened in the community 13 miles west of Orlando may be impossible to tell today because of scarce and contradictory sources and distinctly separate perspectives: one White and one Black.”

Ocoee’s “Voting Day Massacre” was not an aberration, but the mass  of destruction was historic. Craven acts to intimidate Blacks from voting were rampant from the end of the Civil war. Civil rights groups  protested for fair access to voting. Finally in 1965 there was enough inertia to pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

This lesson guideline by the civilrightsteaching.org explains the act, the Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other barriers to Black voting. It gave the federal government the authority to send federal registrars and observers to register new voters and oversee elections…Poll taxes were eliminated in federal elections through the 24th Amendment.”

If you ever feel indifferent, or too busy to vote, consider the lynchings so you could have a vote. It was heroes like  Julius Perry, who stood up to the Klan for our  right to vote. This is a Lost Black History fact you can share with anyone you know who does not want to vote