ROSEWOOD, Fla. — Lizzie Jenkins, who was born in 1938, says she spent most of her life on 29 acres in Archer, Fla.


What You Need To Know

  •  In 1923, the Rosewood Massacre took place in Rosewood, Fla., after a white woman claimed she had been assaulted in her home by a Black man

  •  Historians say the confrontation between residents of the town and a large group of white men resulted in eight deaths

  •  Descendants of the survivors, though, say dozens of people were killed

  • Lizzie Jenkins, 89, the niece of massacre survivor Aaron Carrier, has founded The Real Rosewood Foundation to make sure the story of the massacre doesn't disappear

Before that, her grandfather, Charlie Bell, owned the home — and before him Jenkins' great-grandfather, Wesley Brown Sr., held the deed.

“My great-grandfather purchased the property in 1897 and we have kept it in the family,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins, 89, is the founder and president of The Real Rosewood Foundation and is a descendant of a survivor of the Rosewood Massacre.

“My uncle Aaron Carrier was accused of assaulting Fanny Taylor — the wife of James Taylor who was a foreman of the Sumner Sawmill — in 1923,” said Jenkins. “However, he was not guilty.”  

Historians say the confrontation started after Fanny Taylor, a white woman, told police that a Black man had assaulted her.

Jenkins says her claim sparked riots and ended up causing more than 100 Ku Klux Klan members to travel to Rosewood, Fla.

“The Klan had a reputation of lynching, killing people for no reason; that’s who they were,” said Jenkins. 

Jenkins said her uncle was beaten and dragged from the back of a car, with a rope around his neck from Rosewood to Somner.

“They kept questioning him asking him where were you on the night Fanny Taylor was beat,” said Jenkins. “The beat him, nearly unconscious and threw him in the back of the sheriff’s wagon for him to finish him off.”

Reports said eight people died during The Rosewood Massacre, including two white people, but the members of several descendant families say the confrontation resulted in dozens of deaths.

“If it weren’t for the sheriff, every Black person would have been killed,” said Jenkins.

Jenkins said that Robert Elias Walker, the sheriff of Levy County, hid her uncle in Gainesville after he was beaten.  

“(They threw) Aaron in the sheriffs car for him to take him into the woods and kill him,” said Jenkins. “However, the sheriff took him to Gainesville, as fast as his Model T could carry him and told the Aluchua County Sheriff P.J. Walker to put Aaron up and don’t tell any of the KKK members that he was in jail.”

Jenkins said she credits the sheriff for how her family and many others got out of Rosewood.

“He became our hero — my mother loved him,” said Jenkins. “He took care of the people — had it not been for his humanity, they would’ve died and as a result of that, they fired him a few years later."

Movie director John Singleton released the movie "Rosewood" in 1997. In the movie you see Jenkin’s uncle Aaron Carrier — who is played by an actor — in the first 30 minutes of the movie.

“The Real Rosewood Foundation is about preserving history,” said Jenkins. “My mother kept all these documents I have today. I used to think it was clutter, but now I see — I’ve been telling Rosewood’s story for 30 years and I’ll keep telling it.”

Jenkins said that those who survived the massacre never returned but also never forgot.