Chapter 7: Investigations

Posted by Geoffrey Cravero

The investigations that followed the Ocoee Massacre provided no new evidence about the violence, but they demonstrated the ways Whites and Blacks interpreted the events and acted on their perceptions. They also shaped the way Florida and the nation would interpret Ocoee for the next eighty years.

NAACP Investigation

Walter F. White (1893-1955). (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Walter F. White (pictured right), Field Assistant Field Secretary for the the NAACP, arrived in Orlando on November 5, 1920 to investigate the violence at Ocoee. An experienced investigator, his light skin color enabled him to pass for White.  He used a cover story that he was interested in purchasing land to facilitate his travel around the area and to pose questions to Whites. Those he interviewed included Republicans Judge John M. Cheney, former Orlando postmaster W.R. O’Neal, and attorney Alexander Ackerman, and Black Orlando physicians Dr. J.B. Callahan and Dr. W. H. Woodan, and Black ministers Rev. J.A. Long and Rev. H.K. Hill.

The NAACP report, which was subsequently in The Crisis, The New Republic, and the Clayton Monthly, was the most comprehensive coverage of the events. The NAACP submitted the report and supporting documents in their testimony before the hearings on apportionment before the U.S. House Committee on the Census in December 1920. The NAACP presented their evidence on Ocoee as part of their claims that qualified Black voters were denied access to the ballot. They called on the House to evoke Section 2b of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and reduce the number of representatives from states such as Florida whose laws and actions denied the right to vote to Black citizens. The report and supporting materials also became part of the Bureau of Investigation’s inquiry on Ocoee and Jacksonville.

Alexander Akerman (1869-1948), Scholars Commons.

In addition to the information on Ocoee, the documents included a list of 942 Blacks from Jacksonville who had been denied the vote. Their names, addresses and voter registration numbers were listed.

Also included in the documents that informed the report was a letter from Alexander Akerman (pictured right), attorney in the Cheney law firm and future federal judge in the South Florida District Court (1929-1939).  His father, Amos T. Akerman was U.S. Attorney General (1871) in the U.S. Grant administration and his son Alexander Akerman Jr. was a defense attorney for the Groveland Four. After the death of Judge Cheney, the Akerman Law firm moved to Miami, where it is today.

The letter addressed to Senator William C. [sic] Kenyon (R. Iowa) was dated November 6, 1920.  The letter outlines the events surrounding the election and also illustrates the complexity of racial views even among those who championed Black voting rights.

Read the Letter

Orlando, Fla. [handwritten]

6 November 1920

Hon. William C.[sic] Kenyon

Washington, D.C.

My dear Senator:

. . . . . . . . . . .

I write you in preference to some of our other friends in the Senate, for the reason that I know you to be a conservative lawyer and I have no desire to stir up any political excitement but merely to appeal through you to to [sic] the constituted authorities of the United States, to at least make some effort to remedy conditions as they exist in this part of the county.

As a preface, I might state, that you can perhaps judge from my previous correspondence that I am, viewed from the standpoint of a Republican, rather more conservative, than most Republicans, in my views regarding the Negro race and feel that in some instances, the members of my own party, especially about convention time, have coddled and appealed to the Negro as such, rather than to all persons of American descent, to such an extent as to give certain of the Negroes false ideas and false ambitions, but, notwithstanding this fact, I am an American citizen and believe that every American citizen, whether white or black, should be given every right, either political or personal, that is granted him by the Constitution.

About the first of September, the Republican State Central Committee appointed a campaign committee and this committee selected me manager of the campaign in Florida.  The Republicans of Florida had nominated a complete national and state ticket, composed of men of the highest character and integrity and we endeavored to carry on a campaign upon broad lines, entirely ignoring the race question and appealing to the voters in regard to the unwisdom of the League of Nations and the benefits to flow to the Florida citizens.

The addresses of our speakers were practically all made out in the open, where every one was invited to attend and our speakers entirely steered clear of the race problems.

On the contrary, every Democratic speaker and every Dem. newspaper in the state (the entire press) immediately set up a howl the election of a Republican president or Republican officers meant Negro domination, black heels on white necks, Negroes in office and a return to carpet bag days.

The result of this agitation upon the part of the Democrats was that in Jacksonville, the largest city in the state, the Ku Klux Klan was revived and on the night of October 30 paraded the streets of Jacksonville, 1000 strong, in disguise, with a herald announcing that they stood for “white supremacy” and the natural result was that while there are approximately 10,000 Negro registered in Duval County and a large number of white Republicans, less than 5,000 Republican votes were cast.

In Orlando, a like band of KKK paraded the streets on Oct. 30, 500 strong with a similar herald.  They paraded through the entire Negro section and around the Negro churches to intimidate and frighten the Negro voters.

At Ocoee it was rumored for weeks in advance that not a single Negro would be permitted to vote.  I asked certain of my white friends there to see that the Negroes did not go to the polls in crowds but that they should be instructed to go quietly, one or two at a time, and attempt to cast their ballots and in the event that this right was denied to go quietly back to their homes. But, as near as I can arrive as I can arrive at the facts, about four o’clock, a Negro named July Perry went to vote and was denied upon the ground that he had not paid his poll tax, when as a matter of fact, the records of this county (if they have not been doctored since) will how that he has paid his poll tax.  The Dem. press claimed that he made a threat that he was going to get his gun and see that he did vote.  I do not believe that anyone, situated as he was would have been fool-hardy enough to make such a threat.  After the polls closed, a number of armed men went to his house without a warrant and without authority of law, as is claimed by those approving their action and conduct, to arrest this Negro.  Two white men were shot in the Negro’s backyard.  From that time on for two or three days the community ran riot.  I do not believe it will ever be known how many Negroes were killed.  Every Negro school house, church and lodge room in that vicinity was burned, in some instance with women and children occupying the house, and thus burned to death.  Even today, four days after the election, conditions in Orlando, a city of 10,000 inhabitants, are such that we have to advise every Negro to stay off the streets for fear that the riot will be renewed and there are even threats made to tar and feather the leading white Republicans and drive them out of the community.

The foregoing is a fair sample of conditions which exist in most parts of the state.

Again, election laws in Florida are framed not with the view of permitting the voter to intelligently cast his vote, but entirely to prevent Repub. from voting.  Voter is required to have paid his poll tax two years previous to the election, to have registered and when he presents himself at the polls, he is given an official ballot, details of which of which[sic] have been kept secret.  He is not permitted to carry any memorandum but is required to in five minutes vote a ballot more than a yard long containing approximately 75 names.  The arrangement of this ballot is left to the County Commissioner, no identification as to party being permitted and not even the requirement that they be listed alphabetically.  Of 29 electors, voters vote for 6.  County Commissioners, being Dem., bunch Dem. electors and mix up other electors Repub., Soc., Prohib., etc.  The word is then passed down the line to the Dem. voters to vote the first six or whatever six may be bunched.

Nothing in my judgment tends more to build up corrupt politics, graft and ring rule than for a community to be absolutely bound to any one party but how can you Repub. of the North ever expect us to do anything as long the Repub. Senate and Congress are so recreant to their duty as to fail to pass fair election laws which would give to every citizen, no matter of what race or of what descent, the right to cast his ballot and have the same registered and in the interest of the section of the country in which I live and not in the interest of the party.  I appeal to you and through you to the other Repub. senators to have an investigation of conditions in the South.  If is not considered wise for the National government to take charge of the elections where congressmen, senators and presidential electors are voted for, then, in God’s name, cut down the representation of the South  as it should be cut down and do not permit this section of the country to be represented in the lower house in proportion to the vast number of citizens who are no more permitted to exercise the privilege of their citizenship than are the cattle, mules and hogs belonging to the members of the dominant party in this section of the country.

Sincerely yours,

Alexander Akerman

Source

Ku Klux Klan, 1920 in NAACP Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Orange County Grand Jury Report

Orange County Court House, Orlando, Florida. (Image courtesy of Florida Memory.)

The Orange County Grand Jury met in November, 1920 and heard testimony from twenty Whites and one Black man, R. P. Neely.  The witnesses were law enforcement officials, government officials, businessmen, and citrus growers.  The report praised the actions of the members of Orlando Post, No. 9 American Legion in maintaining law and order.

The findings of the Grand Jury

“We find no evidence against anyone or any group of individuals as to who perpetrated the fatalities.  In the death of the two white men, Elmer McDaniels and Lee Borgard, and the death of July Perry, a Negro, we accept the coroner’s verdict.  We exonerate Perry’s widow and daughter, now in custody at Tampa, Fla., and recommend their release.”

The report concluded:
“We believe that Orange County citizens in producing immediate order out of chaos at Ocoee have maintained the honor of their county and State.  Judgment and sanity, law and order, peacefulness and sobriety actuate the people of Orange County at all times and in the most trying circumstances and these people are determined that justice shall be done and that the prestige of the courts shall be increased to the highest possible standard, and that we go on record as being opposed to mob rule and deplore all semblance to lynch law but do firmly stand for law and order.”

N. P. Yowell, foreman

W. M. Glenn, Secretary

Copies of the Orange County Grand Jury report were inserted into the record of the hearings of the House Apportionment Committee and the House Committee on Rules (Ku Klux Klan hearings).

Bureau of Investigation (1920)

Alexander Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General.

The Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also conducted an investigation at the request of the U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

Agent A.V. French from the Bureau’s Jacksonville Office investigated and filed his report on December 4, 1920.  For his report, he interviewed M.O. Overstreet, a banker in Orlando and Ocoee, and Joe Jones, Prosecuting Attorney for Orange County.  He found a total of five deaths as the result of the actions in Ocoee: two Black women, one Black man, and two White men.

“Agent made diligent search and inquiry as to violation of the Election Laws and failed to find any one that would say any improper conduct at or near the Polls at Ocoee on November 2, 1920, other than that created by a colored man by the name of Mose Norman, who came up to the Polls and demanded to vote and was refused on the ground that he had not paid his poll tax and& registered.”

French found no evidence of a branch of the KKK in Ocoee. (In his Master’s thesis, future mayor of Ocoee Lester Dabbs claimed that the West Orange County Branch of the KKK was located in Winter Garden, and that it was the 3rd Branch established in Florida.)

Agent French concluded “From all information gathered by this Agent this entire trouble was due to the labor situation, which had unquestionably been brewing for months.”

“Investigative Reports of the Bureau of Investigation, 1908-1922,” National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Apportionment of Representatives: Hearings before the U.S. House Committee on the Census, 66th Congress, 3rd Session, Dec. 28, 29, 1920  Jan. 4-6, 1921.

When Walter White presented his report to the Committee representatives William Larson (Georgia) and Carlos Bee (Texas) took great offense, claiming that the NAACP had insulted the integrity of the their states.  When White provided examples of official prevention of voting by qualified voters, they dismissed his allegations by claiming that those were actions by individuals and were not the result of the laws governing elections; they made their claims using racially insulting language until the chair of the committee intervened to return the hearings to testimony of White.

White’s reports and exhibits were compelling and he argued that “White supremacy is not threatened by a fair Federal election in the Southern United States, but one party will receive its death blow by an effective Federal election.” p. 30

House Committee on Lynching (1921)

Ku Klux Klan Rally, Tampa, 1923. (Photo courtesy of Florida Memory.)

Concerned about the spread of the Ku Klux Klan into northern states, congressional resolutions called for an investigation.  The House Committee on Rules opened an investigation on October 11, 1921.  The committee was charged with uncovering possible use of the U.S. mail to perpetrate fraud as well as activities by masked and unmasked men to disturb the peace and well-being of individuals and communities.  As one committee member stated they were not concerned about what occurred behind the closed doors of lodges, but what members did in public in the name of the organization.  Almost immediately references were made to “active and premeditated use of…premeditated terrorism…as happened last year at Ocoee and Jacksonville.”  A summary of events, with several specific errors was also made.

William J. Sears, Florida Congressman. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

This brief mention of Ocoee and Jacksonville apparently excited the Florida Congressmen Frank Clark and William Sears who felt compelled to interrupt the proceedings on the second afternoon to set the record straight.  They introduced into the record the Orange County Grand Jury Report of 1920 and their own testimony from the Apportionment Committee Hearings.  Most specifically, Sears wanted to make the point, as he had made it earlier that the violence “had nothing at all to do with the election.”

“The Ku-Klux Klan” Hearings before The Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, sixty-seventh Congress, first session, 1921.