National Network for Equitable Library Service

When a black man was accused of attacking a white woman in a rural Florida town, a tinderbox of racial hatred was ignited. On New Year's Day 1923, Rosewood, a town of hard-working, middle class African Americans was burned to the ground by an angry mob of whites. After hiding in frigid nearby swamps for days, the few survivors never returned. The town's existence vanished like a mirage until 1982 when a local journalist-writing an article on weekend getaways-stumbled upon the Rosewood secret.