Rosewood (VHS, 1997)

In 1982, a reporter visiting Levy County, Florida, noticed a lack of Black residents. He asked questions, and a long-ago tragedy came to light. John Singleton directs Jon Voight and Ving Rhames in this powerful true drama. It is January 1, 1923, in Rosewood, a largely Black town built on family, faith, and hard work. Hopes for the new year abruptly end when, in a few harrowing nights, a white mob razes Rosewood into oblivion. As the rampage gains cataclysmic force, a heroic World War I veteran (Rhames) and a shopkeeper (Voight) join forces to lead dozens of terrified women and children, who have fled into nearby swamps, to safety.