Rosewood

Overview

A town destroyed in one week

Rosewood grew up in the 1840s east of Cedar Key, and in 1870 it got a post office and a depot on the Florida Railroad. Its trade was cedar timber, and two pencil mills worked at nearby Cedar Key. When the cedar ran out around 1890, many white families moved to Sumner, a mill town a mile away, and Rosewood became a mostly Black community. Its population peaked in 1915, at 355 by Wikipedia's count or 700 by the 1993 state report's. By 1920 it had three churches, a school, a Masonic Hall, mills and stores.

On January 1, 1923, Fannie Taylor, a white woman in Sumner, said a Black man had beaten her. Over the next week white posses and mobs hunted Black residents, attacked a house where families had sheltered, and burned the town. The official count was eight dead: six Black people and two white men who attacked the Carrier house. The state marker, put up in 2004, names five Black victims. Survivors and descendants have long said the toll was higher; survivors' estimates ran to 27 Black dead, and some reports went far above that. The true number is not known.

No one was charged. The survivors scattered, some changed their names, and none returned to live in Rosewood. For about 60 years they mostly kept silent. After a reporter revived the story in 1982 and historians documented the attacks for the Legislature in 1993, Florida passed a compensation act in 1994.

Timeline

Rosewood, 1845 to 2004

The sequence below follows Wikipedia's account of the massacre, the 1993 state report it draws on, and the text of the state marker. Accounts of who was killed when, and by whom, differ in places. Where they do, we say so or leave the detail out. The 1993 report itself places Lexie Gordon's death on January 4 in its chronology and on the morning of January 5 in its narrative.

1. 1845–1847Rosewood is settled about nine miles east of Cedar Key. Wikipedia's town article gives 1845; its article on the massacre gives 1847.
2. 1870A post office and a depot on the Florida Railroad open. The local timber trade centers on cedar, and two pencil mills operate at Cedar Key.
3. c. 1890Most of the local cedar has been cut. The pencil mills close and many white families move to Sumner, a mill town a mile to the southwest. By 1900 Rosewood is mostly Black.
4. 1915The population peaks: 355 by Wikipedia's count, 700 by the 1993 state report's.
5. 1920The town has three churches, a school, a large Masonic Hall, a turpentine mill, a sugarcane mill, two general stores and a baseball team, the Rosewood Stars.
6. Jan 1, 1923In Sumner, Fannie Taylor, a white woman, reports that a Black man beat her. Her first report does not claim rape. Black residents believed she had been beaten by a white man; Philomena Goins later recalled seeing a white man leave the house before noon.
7. Jan 1Sheriff Robert Walker's posse and white men from the area hunt for Jesse Hunter, a Black prisoner who had escaped a chain gang. Aaron Carrier is dragged behind a car to Sumner and taken into protective custody. Sam Carter, a blacksmith, is tortured and shot; the state marker and the 1993 report both date his death to January 1. The next day a coroner's jury finds he was shot by an "unknown party."
8. Jan 4–5On the evening of January 4 a mob surrounds Sarah Carrier's house, where 15 to 25 people had sheltered. The shooting lasts into the next morning. Sarah Carrier and her son Sylvester are found dead inside, and two white attackers, C. P. Wilkerson and Henry Andrews, are killed. The mob burns the house, more homes and a church. Lexie Gordon is shot as she flees her burning house.
9. Jan 5–6Two to three hundred white men converge on the area. Mingo Williams, a turpentine worker, is shot on the road near Bronson, about 20 miles away. James Carrier, whom the mill superintendent had locked in a house for his protection, is found by the mob, made to dig his own grave and shot; the 1993 report puts his death on January 6. Residents hide for days in the swamps.
10. Jan 6John and William Bryce, white train conductors from Cedar Key, carry women and children out to Gainesville. They refuse to take Black men.
11. Jan 7A mob of 100 to 150 men returns and burns the dozen or so buildings still standing. John Wright's house is the only one left.
12. Feb 1923An all-white special grand jury in Bronson hears Black and white witnesses and finds too little evidence to charge anyone. No one is ever prosecuted.
13. 1982Gary Moore of the St. Petersburg Times publishes the story. CBS's 60 Minutes follows about a year later.
14. Dec 22, 1993Historians from Florida State, Florida A&M and the University of Florida, commissioned by the Speaker of the Florida House, deliver their report.
15. 1994The Senate approves the survivors' claim 26 to 14 on April 8. On May 4, Gov. Lawton Chiles signs the $2.1 million compensation bill. Nine survivors receive $150,000 each.
16. May 2004Gov. Jeb Bush dedicates the Florida Heritage Landmark marker on State Road 24.

What is known

How many died

The figures have never been settled, and every source we used says so in some form.

• Official count: eight dead, six Black and two white. Wikipedia's account and the 1993 report name the six Black dead as Sam Carter, Sarah Carrier, Sylvester Carrier, Lexie Gordon, Mingo Williams and James Carrier, and the two white dead as C. P. Wilkerson and Henry Andrews.
• The state marker (2004): five Black dead, Sam Carter, Sarah Carrier, Lexie Gordon, James Carrier and Mingo Williams, and two white men "killed while attacking a home." It does not name Sylvester Carrier. The 1993 report notes that Carrier descendants believe he escaped and died years later in Texas.
• The press in 1923: The New York Times of January 8 reported seven deaths. The Miami Metropolis reported 20 Black and four white dead.
• Survivors: up to 27 Black dead. Estimates as high as 150 have circulated; a 1984 newspaper article doubted them. Several eyewitnesses described a mass grave, one of them 26 bodies covered with a plow brought from Cedar Key. By the time authorities looked into these accounts, most witnesses had died or were too frail to lead them to a site, so the mass grave is unconfirmed.
• Descendants today: WUFT News wrote in December 2024 that at least seven people were killed, "although some descendants of the families who lived there say that number is much higher."

After 1923

Silence, then recognition

In 1982 Gary Moore of the St. Petersburg Times wrote the story that reopened the case, and CBS's 60 Minutes took it up about a year later. In 1993 the Speaker of the Florida House commissioned a history from scholars at Florida State, Florida A&M and the University of Florida, led by Maxine Jones of Florida State. Their report, delivered on December 22, 1993, ran to about 100 pages with some 400 pages of documents. It found that Sheriff Robert Walker did not control the mob and that Gov. Cary Hardee went hunting while Rosewood burned, as Southern Changes reported in 1994. Moore pointed out errors in the report, and the historians withdrew the most serious ones before the final version.

Survivors including Minnie Lee Langley, Arnett Turner Goins and Wilson Hall filed a claims bill. A special master, Richard Hixson, told the Legislature the state had a "moral obligation" to them. The Senate passed the claim 26 to 14 on April 8, 1994, and Gov. Lawton Chiles signed the $2.1 million bill on May 4. Nine survivors received $150,000 each, a fund paid families who could show lost property, and a scholarship fund was set up for descendants. Southern Changes called it the first time a state legislature voted to compensate victims of racial violence.

John Singleton's film Rosewood came out in 1997. In 2020 the state set up a scholarship program paying up to $6,100 each to as many as 50 direct descendants a year. Rosewood families have gathered every year since 1985.

The site today

What you'll find

Rosewood is a quiet stretch of State Road 24 with houses, small businesses and woods. Wikipedia records a general store, fisheries, farms and neighborhoods there since the 1950s, and a volunteer fire department since 1980. Of the 1923 town, only John Wright's house stands. Wright, a white storekeeper, hid people from the mobs and helped them get out.

The two-sided Florida Heritage Landmark marker stands outside the Wright house. A WUFT photo caption of December 2024 says it "stands tall outside the John Wright House after years of being vandalized and replaced." In 2022 Fox 35 reported that the family living in the house had donated it to the Real Rosewood Foundation, led by Lizzie Jenkins, whose aunt survived the massacre, to be moved a little over 30 miles to Archer as a museum. In December 2024 WUSF reported plans for a life-size replica of Rosewood on 29 acres Jenkins donated in Archer, funded with $480,000 in state money and donations and meant to open by 2026. In May 2025 WCJB reported Jenkins still raising money for the museum. We found no report that the house has moved or the museum has opened.

The historic maps below name Rosewood on the road from Otter Creek to Cedar Key. The 1954 sheet shows Sumner just to the southwest and a lookout tower to the north; the 1955 Sumner sheet shows the Suwannee Lookout Tower below the Rosewood name.

• The John Wright House, the only building left from 1923
• Florida Heritage Landmark marker (2004)
• Rosewood sign on SR 24

Historic maps

Rosewood on USGS maps, 1954–1978

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19541:250,00019551:24,00019781:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Rosewood is on State Road 24, the road onto Cedar Key. From Cedar Key it is about ten miles east. From Gainesville the drive runs southwest on Archer Road, which is SR 24 the whole way.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Rosewood in photos

The Rosewood sign on SR 24, 2007The marker's second side: the 1994 act and the 2004 dedication, 2008The New York Times, January 8, 1923The John Wright House, said to be the only house that survived the massacre, November 2021A burning cabin as printed by The Literary Digest, January 20, 1923; whether it was in Rosewood is disputed

Visitor reports

Been to Rosewood?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Rosewood

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Florida index.

• Cedar Key9.1 mi SW · Levy
• Atsena Otie Key9.9 mi SW · Levy
• Romeo30.0 mi E · Marion
• Mannfield43.1 mi SE · Citrus
• Hague47.9 mi NE · Alachua
• Newnansville47.9 mi NE · Alachua
• Traxler49.5 mi NE · Alachua
• Rochelle49.6 mi NE · Alachua

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Rosewood massacre", retrieved October 2026: settlement, economy, the 1915 population and the town in 1920; the events of January 1–7, 1923, and the names of the dead; the official count and the other estimates; the Bryce brothers; the grand jury; Gary Moore and 60 Minutes; the 1993 report and Moore's criticism of it; Richard Hixson; the 1994 act; the 1997 film; the 2020 scholarship.
2. Maxine Jones and others, "A Documented History of the Incident Which Occurred at Rosewood, Florida, in January 1923" (commissioned by the Speaker of the Florida House, delivered December 22, 1993; Internet Archive copy of the Displays for Schools transcription that Wikipedia links): the chronology, the January 1 killing of Sam Carter and the coroner's jury, the dates of the other deaths, the 700 peak in 1915, the eight recorded deaths, Carrier descendants' belief that Sylvester Carrier escaped.
3. Wikipedia, "Rosewood, Florida", retrieved October 2026: the 1845 settlement date, the 1920 census, the community since the 1950s, the fire department.
4. Florida Division of Historical Resources, marker "Rosewood, Florida" (2004): the five Black victims it names and the two white attackers killed, Sam Carter's death on January 1, John M. Wright, the claims bill, the special master's finding, the May 4, 1994, signing, $150,000 to each of nine survivors, the dedication by Gov. Jeb Bush in May 2004.
5. Ellen Spears, "Rosewood Massacre Survivors Win," Southern Changes 16:1 (1994): the April 8 Senate vote of 26 to 14, the state team's findings on Sheriff Walker and Gov. Hardee, first state compensation for racial violence.
6. Kristin Chermont Spina, "Anniversary of the Rosewood massacre draws near," WUFT, December 23, 2024: the marker outside the John Wright House and its vandalism (photo caption), descendants on the toll.
7. Libby Clifton, "Resurrection project to protect the Civil War-era town of Rosewood," WUSF, December 7, 2024: the Real Rosewood Foundation and the planned replica in Archer.
8. Randi Hildreth, Fox 35 Orlando, February 3, 2022: the donation of the Wright house, the plan to move it to Archer, Lizzie Jenkins's aunt as a survivor.
9. "The Real Rosewood Foundation: Museum in the works," WCJB, May 21, 2025: the museum still in planning, with a fundraiser in Archer.
10. HBCU History and Culture Access Consortium, "Remembering Rosewood": Maxine Jones's role, the yearly family gatherings since 1985.
11. RareNewspapers.com listing: the date and page of the New York Times report shown above.
12. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The Rosewood sign on SR 24, 2007: Moni3, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The marker's second side: the 1994 act and the 2004 dedication, 2008: Tmbevtfd, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The New York Times, January 8, 1923: New York Times, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The John Wright House, said to be the only house that survived the massacre, November 2021: Jud McCranie, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A burning cabin as printed by The Literary Digest, January 20, 1923; whether it was in Rosewood is disputed: The Literary Digest Magazine, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Gainesville 1954, 1:250,000; Sumner 1955, 1:24,000; Ocala 1978, 1:100,000.