National
Zack Wittman for The Washington Post
The families gathering were not related by blood but by a cruel history. Nearly a century ago, their forebears had to flee their town of Rosewood, Fla., after a white mob burned their prosperous, mostly black town to the ground.
Zack Wittman for The Washington Post
The Rosewood descendants still meet at least once a year to keep the story alive. After the town was wiped off the map, the incident was wiped out of the history books and the state’s collective memory — until the families convinced Florida officials in 1994 that they deserved reparations.
One of the family traditions at each reunion is tying the ceremonial cloth. Each knot symbolizes a deceased relative from a Rosewood family, and the red cloth illustrates the loving bond that connects them.
The $1.9 million that the state gave to survivors and descendants came and went quickly, but families still utilize the state’s offer to send Rosewood descendants to Florida colleges tuition-free. The most lasting effect of the fight for reparations, though, might be events such as these, uniting groups of families that were once fractured after this incident of racial terror.