Jim Crow & Racial Violence
Ocoee Election Day Massacre
November 2, 1920 · violence continued into November 3
Ocoee, Orange County, Florida
An attempt by Mose Norman to vote on November 2, 1920, was followed by white mob violence, July Perry’s lynching, and the displacement of Ocoee’s Black community.
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On Election Day, November 2, 1920, Mose Norman, a Black United States citizen, attempted to vote in Ocoee, Florida, and was turned away from the polls. The Orange County Regional History Center places his attempt to exercise the right to vote at the center of the events that followed.
That evening, armed white men came to the home of Norman’s friend July Perry while searching for Norman. Shooting followed. Perry was captured and lynched in Orlando in the early hours of November 3. This anniversary uses November 2 for Election Day and the start of the violence, not as the date of every subsequent killing.
White attackers murdered Black residents and burned homes and community property. The number of people killed is unknown; historical accounts and estimates differ. The History Center’s research draws on primary sources, land records, and oral histories, and cautions against treating conflicting accounts as a settled total.
Most of Ocoee’s Black residents fled and did not return. The massacre combined voter intimidation, lynching, property destruction, and forced displacement. It deprived residents not only of safety and political participation but also of homes, land, and community ties.