John Moses Cheney
(1859-1922)
man
Died aged 62
Wikidata WikipediaJohn Moses Cheney (January 6, 1859 – June 2, 1922) was a Florida attorney and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. A Republican, Cheney represented African American clients during the segregation era and supported voter registration drives during his U.S. Senate campaign in the era of white supremacy supported by the Democratic Party in Florida and across the south. Efforts to register African Americans resulted in the Ocoee massacre.
DbPedia
Commemorated on 1 plaque
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Lynching of July Perry November 3, 1920 On Election Day, November 2, 1920, black residents in the Ocoee area who owned land and businesses were eager to vote. Despite a terrorizing Ku Klux Klan march through the streets of Orlando three days prior, Mose Norman and other African Americans attempted to vote. They were turned away. After seeking advice from Orlando Judge John Cheney, Norman again attempted to vote. Armed whites stationed at the polls immediately assaulted him. Reportedly, he fled to the home of his friend and business associate, July Perry. A mob seeking to capture Perry and Norman surrounded and burned Perry's home. Norman escaped, but Perry suffered a severe wound and was arrested, transported to Orlando, and jailed in the Orange County Jail, a block away from this site, on Orange Avenue. The next morning a lynch mob took Perry from his cell, beat him severely, and hanged him within sight of Judge Cheney's home. His lifeless body was shot repeatedly. For two days, a white mob burned 25 black homes, two black churches, and a masonic lodge in Ocoee. Estimates of the total number of black Americans killed during the violence range from six to over thirty. Survivors fled, never to return. The entire black community of Ocoee was driven out within a year, forced to abandon or sell land and homes they owned. The Ocoee Election Day Massacre represents one of the bloodiest days in American political history. July Perry is buried in Orlando's Greenwood Cemetery.
Orange County Regional History Center, 65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL, United States where they was