5 Race Riots In America That You Were Never Taught In School

5 Race Riots In America That You Were Never Taught In School - Page 6

Countless riots—tragic and often ignored—have unfolded throughout American history, remaining absent from most textbooks and classrooms. Here are five you may not have learned about in school.

5. The Rosewood Massacre (1923) – Rosewood, Florida

In the small town of Rosewood, a false accusation by a white woman led to a week-long siege on a thriving Black community. White mobs burned homes, lynched residents, and terrorized survivors, forcing them to flee. The town was wiped off the map and its memory buried for decades. On New Year’s Day, 1923, in the small town of Sumner, Florida, a white woman named Fannie Taylor claimed she had been assaulted by a Black man named Jesse Hunter, an escaped convict. Despite a complete lack of evidence, her accusation sparked a violent chain of events that would devastate the nearby Black community of Rosewood.

Rosewood was a quiet, self-sufficient town of about 200 Black residents. In the days following Taylor’s claim, white mobs from Sumner and surrounding areas stormed into Rosewood, allegedly searching for Hunter, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. On Jan. 2, 1923, Sam Carter, a local Black carpenter, was captured, tortured, and lynched simply for being suspected of helping Hunter flee.

As the violence escalated, Rosewood’s Black residents began arming themselves in defense. On the night of Jan. 4, a white posse opened fire on the home of Sylvester Carrier, suspecting him of hiding Hunter. An elderly woman inside was killed, and a shootout ensued, resulting in several deaths on both sides. Enraged by the resistance they met, the white mob regrouped and returned in even greater numbers.

On Jan. 5, between 200 and 300 white men descended on Rosewood, killing as many as 30 to 40 Black residents and setting fire to homes, churches, and businesses. Survivors fled into nearby woods or escaped by train to Gainesville — few ever returned. Years later, it was revealed that Fannie Taylor had fabricated her story, likely to cover up an affair with a white man. Her lie destroyed an entire community.

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