ORLANDO, Fla. — A historical marker was unveiled in Orlando Friday, almost 100 years after one of the darkest days in Central Florida history.

  • Historical marker for July Perry revealed in downtown Orlando
  • July Perry was lynched by a mob of white men in 1920
  • Perry was a black leader, businessman who fought for black voter rights

The city of Orlando honored July Perry, a prominent black businessman, landowner, and farmer in Ocoee, who was ambushed and lynched near downtown Orlando in 1920.

The historical marker revealed for Perry is a part of the Equal Justice Initiatives Community Remembrance Project, which recognizes U.S. victims of lynching between 1877 and 1950.

Many in Central Florida don’t recall the day Warren G. Harding defeated James Cox in the presidential election in November 1920. They remember Perry, a pioneer who fought for black voter rights.

“What is important is that this community use this tool as something to start the conversation so that we know the history,” said Josie Lemon Allen, who is with the Bridge the Gap Coalition. “We can start unveiling the truths and progress.”

Perry’s great-grandson Stephen Nunn was at the ceremony, and is believed to be one of the very few who know what happened on November 2, 1920 after hearing tragic stories past down to him by his grandmother.

“I got it from her perspective,” Nunn said. “She was in the house, she was there with her dad. She was a part of the exodus from Ocoee by the FBI and police to Orlando.”

The 1920 Ocoee massacre began when Perry's friend Mose Norman, a prosperous black farmer, tried to vote in Ocoee, but was turned away.

A mob of white men surrounded Perry's home, believing Norman had taken refuge there. Perry killed two men while defending his house with a shotgun.

When it comes to the exact location where the lynching occurred, or how many people died that day, no one really has the true answers to it. The piece of the puzzle Nunn carries with him today is the experience of what happened though his grandmother’s eyes.

“The confrontation, the gun fire, the potential people being shot and killed there on the spot, and then of course when her dad was wounded,” Nunn detailed. “He gave her instructions to take her mother and the children, and get them out of the house if she could.”

The historical marker will forever remind downtown Orlando of who July Perry was.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.