Man seeks to rebuild town ruined by racism - Florida’s Rosewood community was destroyed by a white mob in 1923

Rosewood, a place linked to racism at its worst in Florida, is still of great importance to descendants of those involved in the weeklong assault in the 1920s that destroyed the predominantly black town. Now the man who helped lead a drive to have the state compensate families affected by the mob violence is working on a plan to rebuild the community. “My intention is to establish a faith-based, multicultural community in Rosewood,” Arnett Doctor said. Doctor has been credited by state lawmakers as the person who unified the survivors and direct descendants while the $2 million compensation package wound its way into law. He is working on a plan to resurrect the community. He has already broached the subject of re-establishing a community in Rosewood with the Levy County Commission. Rosewood, between the present-day communities of Otter Creek and Cedar Key, was decimated by a white mob in 1923 after a white resident claimed she had been raped by a black man. Her claims were never substantiated, but the black residents fled for their lives into the surrounding swamps and woods when white men torched their homes, school and churches. [more]