Francine was our tour guide. We met at her home in South Apopka at 10am and spent the entire day driving from Apopka to Ocoee to Orlando, looking at parts of the landscape where historical events took place. Kathy and Francine helped Lisa and Stephen understand the chronology of the events.
Francine showed us all of the research materials her team gathered in the 1990s. We need to help her find an archival space to store these materials. She talked about them in the video below, shot by Lisa on her phone:
The following photos and videos illustrate our tour on November 13, 2010. They were taken by Francine and Lisa. Here are two videos shot by Francine that take us from Apopka into Ocoee on Apopka-Ocoee Road past the areas where July Perry farmed the land.
Camphor tree in the front of the lot where July Perry lived.
Construction business on the site of July Perry's home. The funeral parlor that is believed to have been his home has been torn down.
Ocoee's "old downtown."
Area of Ocoee where Blacks lived before the massacre.
Ocoee-Apopka Road looking in the direction Blacks would have fled from Ocoee.
The site of a Black cemetery before the massacre. It now sits at a cul de sac in a small modern housing development. Ground radar has detected more than 100 bodies buried here, and many years ago there was probably a Black church nearby. Marking the area is a sign, some shrubbery and two trees.
The grounds of the cemetery are not particularly well kept.
There is a children's community playground not far from the cemetery. This housing development sits where Ocoee's Black community would have lived.
Imagine running for your life toward the swamps of Lake Apopka... down an irrigation ditch like this one. You know where the ditches are and where they lead because chances are you know someone who dug or maintained them. That's what happened the night of the massacre.
Francine explained that it is believed that the bodies of the Blacks who were killed in the massacre were dumped in Starke Lake. The lakefront is now a city park, right across from the city government complex in downtown Ocoee.
Francine was surprised and a bit disturbed when she realized that the Orange County sheriff's home during the massacre had recently been torn down. A mosque now sits adjacent to the property. Francine noted the building of the mosque was very controversial.
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