The History Of Lynching In Florida

This post highlights the long history of lynching in Florida. While reading you may notice an interesting pattern of what led to these men being lynched or shot to death.

The story of Fred Rochelle: In 1901 a 16yr old boy was accused of killing a white woman in Bartow, FL. Because of the accusation he was arrested & thrown in jail. Somehow a mob of angry white men were able to kidnap Fred from the jail and lynched him publicly. The lynching was advertised as the “Barbecue in Bartow” where Fred was chained to a tree then burned alive in front of everyone.

The story of Mulberry, FL: This is a small city in Florida that was named after a tree used to hang Black people. The tree and excerpt from an article is shown below.

The story of William Bowles: During the 1850’s there were 400+ confederate soldiers living in Polk County, FL. The city lynching rank is 21st in the south and 3rd in the state of Florida. Fast forward to 1921 a man named William Bowles was publicly lynched in Polk County, FL by a angry mob of white men. Surprisingly William was arrested for making improper remarks to a young white woman (allegedly). While en route to the county jail officers were “held up” by an angry mob of white men. The mob “overpowered” the officers who never fired their weapons or used hours of police training to protect the man in their custody. An excerpt from an article published by Associated Press is shown below.

The story of Henry Scott: In 1920 a man named Henry Scott was arrested for because he allegedly insulted a white woman on the Atlantic Coast Line Train No. 82 heading northbound. While en route to the county jail the officer that had Henry Scott in his custody was “overpowered” by 3 white men and in result Henry was shot around 50 times by these individuals. His body was left on the side of a road with a sign that said “This is what you get for insulting a white woman.”. An excerpt from an article published is shown below.