After standing there for about ten minutes attempting to comprehend the information on this sign, I couldn't help but wonder, "Who wrote this?"
"Whose side of the story does this historical two-sided roadside marker depict?"
I find a distasteful irony that this remembrance marker conveniently praises the white residents of Rosewood for their "courageous" actions on one side and the other side of this marker is accompanied by an apology, for it taking so long for this marker to put into place.
"Who is this marker really for?"
This acknowledgement doesn't negate the fact the black families of Rosewood were barbarically tortured and killed, forcing many to flee and go into hiding. And hiding in the nearby woods didn't work for many because…show more content… He nods and says, "I know a little about Rosewood and what happened here.” He said that everyone called him "Bo".
"I wasn't born just yet, but I grew up in Gainesville before my family relocated from Sumner. My mama was a schoolteacher and my pa worked for the railroad after he was discharged from the Army, shortly after World War One. He worked the same railroad that went through Rosewood back then. My family never had no problems with the black folks that came from Rosewood and Gainesville; they wanted to provide for their families the same way mine did.
My pa would tell me about the lynchins and shootins that happened. He say he never seen so many angry white men until Rosewood. He say the more the black folks in Rosewood fought back, the angrier those white men got. My pa say they ain't need all those men to do what they did, I mean.... Rosewood ain't a big place. He say a week after everything happened in Rosewood, he told my ma they had to go and she could teach anywhere.
He always said that he couldn't raise a family in a place like that.
My pa would say, "I ain't come home from the war to do more
