Ocoee Black Community, Ocoee, Florida

What was built

Established or development period: 1880s–1920
Peak period: 1910s
Who built the community: Black citrus growers, farmers, laborers and property owners, including July Perry and Mose Norman.
Black population: Roughly 255–495 Black residents in the Ocoee area in 1920 (sources differ).
Businesses: Citrus groves, farms, labor contracting and small trades.
Financial institutions: Not yet documented
Churches: Two Black churches, both burned.
Schools: A Black schoolhouse, burned.
Hospitals: Not yet documented
Newspapers: Not yet documented
Entertainment & cultural institutions: Not yet documented
Other community institutions: A Masonic lodge, burned.
Black land & property ownership: Black families owned homes, citrus groves and farmland; July Perry and Mose Norman were substantial landowners.
Economic significance: A prosperous Black landowning presence inside Florida's citrus economy.

What happened

What happened?: On Election Day, November 2, 1920, after Mose Norman attempted to vote, white mobs burned the Black quarter of Ocoee, killed residents and lynched July Perry. Surviving Black residents fled and the town remained effectively all-white for decades.
Trigger or precipitating event: Mose Norman's attempt to vote after being turned away, during a Black voter-registration drive.
Underlying historical context: Florida's poll tax and grandfather-clause disenfranchisement, a resurgent Klan, and white opposition to Black voting and Black property ownership.
Method of destruction / displacement: Massacre · Mob Violence · Arson · Lynching · Expulsion
Date or period of destruction: November 2–3, 1920
Confirmed / documented deaths: July Perry was lynched; several deaths were documented contemporaneously.
Estimated deaths: Estimates range from roughly 6 to more than 30, and in some accounts as high as 50+. SOURCES DIFFER.
People displaced: Effectively the entire Black population of Ocoee, roughly 250–500 people.
Homes destroyed: Approximately 25 homes, two churches, a schoolhouse and a lodge hall.
Businesses destroyed: Not yet documented
Acres or property lost: Not yet documented

Afterward

What happened to the land?: Property was abandoned or sold under duress; much of it passed into white ownership at a fraction of its value.
Was compensation paid?: None at the time.
Was the community rebuilt?: No: Ocoee had virtually no Black residents until the late twentieth century.
What was rebuilt?: Not yet documented
Destroyed or displaced again?: Not yet documented
Second displacement date: Not yet documented
Second displacement cause: Not yet documented
What exists there today?: The Ocoee Massacre memorial, state historical markers and a required unit in Florida's public-school African American history instruction.
Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts: A 2018 Orange County proclamation, the 2020 centennial commemoration, the July Perry memorial and the Ocoee Massacre Remembrance Coalition.
Historical significance: The deadliest Election Day violence in United States history and a defining case of violence against Black voting and Black landownership.

Sources

Source lookup
Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources: Ocoee Election Day Riots
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Source lookup
Orange County Regional History Center, Yesterday, This Was Home: The Ocoee Massacre of 1920
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Book or scholarly work
Paul Ortiz, Emancipation Betrayed (University of California Press, 2005)
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Primary record
U.S. Congress and NAACP investigative records, 1921
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Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.