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Politics
Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence University

For one survivor, the 1920 Election Day massacre in Florida was ‘the night the devil got loose’

Descendants of July Perry attend a 2019 ceremony unveiling a historical marker of his lynching. AP Photo/John Raoux

Mose Norman, a Black registered voter, was ready to cast his ballot for presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.

But when he arrived at his polling place on Election Day, Nov. 2, 1920, in the orange grove town of Ocoee, Florida, near Orlando, Norman was turned away by white election officials because of supposed unpaid poll taxes. His name and the names of hundreds of other registered Black voters had been removed from the rolls by white poll workers.

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