Rosewood (film)

Rosewood is a 1997 film directed by John Singleton. While based on historic events of the 1923 Rosewood massacre in Florida, when a white mob killed blacks and destroyed their town, the film introduces fictional characters and changes from historic accounts. In a major change, it stars Ving Rhames as an outsider who comes into Rosewood and inspires residents to selfdefense, wielding his pistols in a fight. The supporting cast includes Don Cheadle as Sylvester Carrier, a resident who was a witness, defender of his family and victim of the riot and Jon Voight as a sympathetic white store owner who lives in a village near Rosewood. The three characters become entangled in an attempt to save people from racist whites attacking the blacks of Rosewood.

Mann Ving Rhames is a mysterious World War I veteran who is scouting out land to buy. He comes to the town of Rosewood, a small predominantly black town in Florida. Rosewood is home to the Carriers, an upwardly mobile black family, helmed by Aunt Sarah Esther Rolle and her proud, headstrong son, Sylvester Don Cheadle. Mann soon meets Beulah Scrappie Carrier Elise Neal, Sylvesters younger sister and the two quickly fall in love.Aunt Sarah works as a housekeeper for James Taylor Loren Dean and his wife, Fanny Catherine Kellner, a white couple who live in the neighboring town of Sumter. Fanny, who has a history of cuckolding her husband, has a rendezvous with her lover while her husband is at work. Fanny argues with her lover Robert Patrick, who ends up beating her. Aunt Sarah and her granddaughter, Lee Ruth Vanessa Baden, overhear the argument and subsequent beating but do not intervene. A distraught Fanny, despairing of explaining her injuries to her husband, leaves her house and calls for help. She then tells several townspeople that she has been attacked by a black man. The white residents readily believe Fannys claim. Hearing of an escaped black convict, a posse from Sumner and nearby towns go to Rosewood to investigate. The black residents of Rosewood quickly become targeted by a white mob, including men from out of state and members of the Ku Klux Klan. ........

Source: Wikipedia