Florida to Pay Victims of ’23 Racist Attack
The Florida Legislature decided today to compensate the victims of racist violence that wiped out the black settlement of Rosewood more than 70 years ago.
The Senate passed a $2.1-million claims bill 26 to 14 to pay survivors and those who lost property, and create scholarships for the descendants of Rosewood’s residents. The community near Cedar Key was burned down in January, 1923, and at least eight people died in a rampage that began when a white woman claimed a black man had assaulted her.
The bill now goes to Gov. Lawton Chiles, who has said he supports compensating the survivors. The state House passed the measure Monday.
Supporters of the bill had originally sought $7 million. They said the state should acknowledge and make amends for an episode that occurred at a time when lynchings and other acts of racial violence were common.
“Rosewood has become a symbol of the countless secret deaths and atrocities that took place throughout this era,” said Sen. Daryl Jones, one of the bill’s sponsors. “It is time for us to make Florida fair to all of its citizens.”
Survivors will be eligible for up to $150,000 each if they can prove that they lived in Rosewood and were forced out by the violence.
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