10. Rosewood Massacre
A small, overwhelmingly black town in Florida, Rosewood was essentially completely destroyed in January of 1923. In the nearby town of Sumner, a 22-year-old white woman named Fannie Taylor was heard screaming and, when her neighbor came to check on her, she was covered in bruises. Claiming to have been assaulted by a black man , she reported that she had not been raped, though the other white citizens in her town believed otherwise.
Her husband gathered a group of Sumner residents and began searching the area for a black prisoner who was said to have escaped a nearby chain gang. Additionally, around 500 members of the KKK were in the area and they joined the mob which eventually decided the town of Rosewood was hiding the target of their ire. Eventually, they reached the town and began terrorizing those they suspected of aiding the escaped prisoner, beating, torturing and even killing some of them. After some white people were killed by those defending themselves, the choice was made to burn the town to the ground.
In all, anywhere from 6 to 27 black people were killed, with the rest escaping with their lives but none of their possessions, as many of them refused to return to the area, fearful of more violence.
9. Atlanta Race Riot
Fearful of the growing power of the black citizens of Atlanta, the white elites in the city began using the local newspapers to push their racially motivated opinions. The governor's race of 1906 was especially repugnant, as various newspapermen utilized their positions to help their campaigns by spreading false information about the state of race relations in Atlanta. A favorite of theirs: any lurid tale of a "pure" white woman being assaulted by a black man.
No one particular story sparked this riot but tensions rose to a breaking point on September 22nd. Eventually, white mobs began terrorizing majority-black neighborhoods, setting fire to any black business they could find and beating and shooting those unlucky enough to cross their path. By the time a heavy rain dispersed most of the crowds, the state militia had showed up and restored order. However, small pockets of violence remained for the next two days and, in the end, as many as 40 African-Americans lost their lives.
8. Thibodaux Massacre
Less than two decades after slavery was outlawed in the United States, many African-Americans working in the South began to realize the power their labor represented. This led to an increasing number of strikes, especially amongst sugar workers. In 1887, some sugar workers reached out to the Knights of Labor, the biggest union of them all. With the help of organized labor, the black workers soon began to demand appropriate wages.
Instead of negotiating, the plant owners began firing union members. When strikes began, they also hired strike-breakers and created militias, armed to the teeth and out for blood. On November 23rd, a mob of white men dragged a number of black workers from their houses and led them to the railroads. Once they arrived, the men were told to run for their lives, before they were all shot in the back by the armed mob. By the time the violence died down, at least 35 people had died. Defeated and cowed, the workers all went back to the plantations and not one person faced justice; in fact, one of the murderers even won a seat in Congress the following year.
7. Ocoee Massacre
Colloquially known as a "sundown town", a phrase which was used to illustrate to the black visitors to the city they were not welcome once night fell, Ocoee, Florida was once the site of a horrific amount of violence. For nearly a year, voting rights activists had been encouraging the black citizens of the state to exercise their right to vote and many of the white citizens began to see it as an attack on their supremacy.
