Women of distinction honored by The Real Rosewood Foundation in Gainesville
The Real Rosewood Foundation Inc. honored eight women who are living the lives a survivor of the Rosewood massacre of 1923 could not live.
The foundation honored the women during the Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier Influential Women Award Celebration held Saturday at the UF Hilton Hotel at 1714 SW 34th St.
The award ceremony was created to honor Carrier, Jenkins’ aunt, who taught school in the cities of Meredith (1910-1915) and Rosewood (1915-1923), both in Levy County.
“The reason I keep this going is to make sure our history is shared and preserved,” Jenkins said. “I never talked about her influence, and I wanted to bring women forward that she would have been like.”
She first heard about the Rosewood massacre when she was five years old from her mother, Jenkins said.
Rosewood massacre: Keeping memories of the Rosewood massacre alive
“I knew it was serious because of the expression on her face,” she said. “Somehow that story was attached to me.”
The women honored during the ceremony were Alachua County School Board member Tina Certain, former Levy County Deputy Clerk Toni C. Collins, District 1 Gainesville City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker, Green Family Foundation President Kimberly Green, 220 Plus non-profit co-founder and Amigos Con Meldon founder Patricia Meldon, Caring and Sharing Learning School co-founder Verna Johnson, Ilene Silverman, vice-president of Budd Broadcasting Co. and executive producer and host of The Ilene Silverman Show and local Realtor Duarine Wehbe.
Remembering Rosewood: Remembering Rosewood: Descendants mark racial violence that razed Florida town 100 years ago
Carrier was born on May 5, 1894, in Archer, and graduated from all-Black Union Academy in Gainesville before going on to graduate from Florida Memorial College, a HBCU located in St. Augustine at the time, in 1910. FMC, now known as Florida Memorial University, is now located in Miami Gardens, Jenkins said in a video presentation during the ceremony.
Carrier spent the remainder of her life running from the Ku Klux Klan after the massacre that took place on Jan. 1, 1923, in Rosewood, a once thriving community along State Road 24, a few miles northeast of Cedar Key in Levy County.
The massacre occurred after Fannie Coleman Taylor, a married white woman and homemaker of Sumner, a town nearby Rosewood, claimed a Black man assaulted her. For three days, the frenzied mob continued their hunt in Rosewood for any living being, killing, raping, pillaging and burning the town to the ground.
“It’s not an easy story to tell,” Jenkins said. “I know people don’t like me to share it, but history is not going anywhere. History is who we are.”
Bishop Leo Robinson of Power House Worship Center said a prayer after thanking his aunt, Lizzie Jenkins, for preserving Rosewood’s history.
“Aunty Lizzie is a non-stop trooper,” Robinson said. “It’s amazing to see the work she’s doing and her ability to bring the people together.”
Jenkins recognized Rosewood’s White visiting descendants Leigh Williams Walker Kitchens, former Levy County Sheriff Bob Walker’s granddaughter; Shareen Burch, Mary Hall Wright’s great niece and Moseley Ruark, former Florida Governor Cary Hardee’s great granddaughter.
“I pray that we stand together and fight for justice and equality for all,” Ruark said. “My hope is that we don’t repeat the same things in the past.”
Silverman gave brief remarks speaking on behalf of all of the honorees.
“I am honored to be among these talented women,” Silverman said. “Lizzie told me, ‘I have selected all of you to represent my aunt tonight. She didn’t get to be the woman she was meant to become.’ I am glad to help others in memory of Mahulda Gussie Brown Carrier and Lizzie Robinson Jenkins.”
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Rosewood foundation honors women of distinction at Gainesville ceremony
