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How One Man’s Election Day Stand Against Racism Turned Into a Massacre in Florida
He was denied his vote on a false claim of not paying a poll tax.
On November 2nd, 1920 as millions of Americans prepared to cast their vote, a chilling instance of racial violence broke out in Ocoee, Florida. The 15th Amendment added to the US Constitution in 1870, had granted all Americans the right to vote, regardless of their race..
However, very few black people chose to exercise this right due to fear. Hurdles such as poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation and fraud were common, discouraging all except some of the bolder, more prosperous and progressive blacks from participating in the democratic process. Nothing was different about this election.
Mose Norman was one such progressive individual. A successful farm owner who lived a life of hard fought for comfort in the orange grove in Ocoee, Florida set out with his head held high, ready to vote. To his disappointment, he was stopped from doing so at the polling station.
Norman refused to take no for an answer and continued to press the authorities, leading to retaliation by the racist white community who lived alongside him and chose to take the law into their own hands. This unleashed a chain of events that would mark one of the…
