Join your hosts, Phraydoe Peans and Thompson as they discuss the Ocoee Election Day Massacre of 1920. On November 2nd 1920, in the town of Ocoee Florida, July Perry and Mose Norman, two very affluent and influential African Americans, were refused their right to vote, despite already paying the voting tax. Blacks had essentially been disenfranchised in Florida since the turn of the century, but Norman and Perry were among those working on the voter drive. Norman contacted Judge John Cheney, who told him that interference with voting was illegal and told him to write the names down of the African Americans who were denied their constitutional rights, as well as the names of the whites who were violating them. Norman later returned to the polling place in Ocoee. Whether Norman came with a shotgun is not entirely clear, but whites at the polls drove off Norman by using his own shotgun, according to witnesses. A few hours later a white mob surrounded the home of July Perry, where Norman was thought to have taken refuge. After Perry drove away the white mob with gunshots, killing two men and wounding one who tried to break into his home, the mob called for reinforcements from Orlando and Orange County. The whites from surrounding areas came to Ocoee and obliterated the African-American community in northern Ocoee and eventually killed Perry. Hundreds of other African Americans fled the town, leaving behind their homes and possessions. Listen in and they discuss this tragic and little known event.