Ocoee massacre and John Moses Cheney
Orlando, Orange County, Florida
Marker Inscription
Lynching of July Perry November 3, 1920 On Election Day, November 2, 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 prior, Mose Norman and other African Americans attempted to vote. They were turned away. After seeking advice from Orlando Judge John Cheney, Norman again attempted to vote. Armed whites stationed at the polls immediately assaulted him. Reportedly, he fled to the home of his friend and business associate, July Perry. A mob seeking to capture Perry and Norman surrounded and burned Perry's home. Norman escaped, but Perry suffered a severe wound and was arrested, transported to Orlando, and jailed in the Orange County Jail, a block away from this site, on Orange Avenue. The next morning a lynch mob took Perry from his cell, beat him severely, and hanged him within sight of Judge Cheney's home. His lifeless body was shot repeatedly. For 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 thirty. 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.
Erected by The Equal Justice Initiative
The Story
On Election Day 1920, Black residents of Ocoee who owned land and businesses sought to vote and were turned away; after Mose Norman persisted, white mobs unleashed days of terror. They surrounded and burned July Perry's home, and the next morning a lynch mob took the wounded Perry from the Orange County Jail and hanged him within sight of Judge Cheney's home. Mobs burned some two dozen Black homes, two churches, and a lodge, and within a year Ocoee's entire Black community was driven out.
Why it matters
The Ocoee Massacre was one of the bloodiest days in American electoral history, a stark reminder of the violence used to deny Black citizens the vote.
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Related people
- · July Perry
- · Mose Norman
- · John Cheney
Related events
- · Ocoee Election Day Massacre, 1920
Themes & tags
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