Miami-Dade could acquire Rosewood house, 36 acres for preservation
Miami-Dade may buy the J.W. Wright House and 35 historic acres tied to Rosewood, opening the site to students, visitors and long-term preservation.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz has asked for $2.3 million to help Miami-Dade County buy 35 acres of historic Rosewood land, including the J.W. Wright House. If the county takes ownership, the site could move from a private remnant of a destroyed town to a public place for remembrance, school visits and preservation.
John Wright, a white storekeeper who owned a general store in Rosewood, is central to why the property still matters. The Miami Center for Racial Justice has said Wright hid Black children in his home and helped get a train into Rosewood to rescue women and children during the attack. The house is described as the last surviving structure from the town after the violence that erased most of it.
Rosewood was destroyed during the massacre that stretched from January 1 to January 7, 1923, in Levy County. A white mob killed at least six Black residents, and the Black population of the town was driven out permanently. The attack has remained one of Florida’s most notorious racial violence cases and a sharp reminder of how quickly a thriving community can be wiped away.
Florida later created a reparations precedent with House Bill 591 in 1994. The law directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the incident, required a report to the Legislature and led to $2.1 million in compensation for Rosewood claimants. Seven survivors were alive when Gov. Lawton Chiles signed the legislation on May 4, 1994.
Interest in the site has grown in recent years. In July 2023, descendants of the eight Rosewood families were taken to the Wright House for the first time, a visit that underscored how few tangible pieces of the town remain. The county acquisition effort also includes private donations that would be used to replant endangered long-leaf yellow pines and red cedar trees on the property, tying historical preservation to conservation work on the ground.
Local preservation advocates, including the Miami Center for Racial Justice, the Real Rosewood Foundation and the Remembering Rosewood effort, have pushed to save the house and use it to educate future generations about both the massacre and the rescue efforts linked to Wright’s home. If Miami-Dade buys the land, the payoff would be more than symbolic: it would give the county a rare chance to preserve a site of racial terror while creating a durable public classroom in South Florida.
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