In December 1922, the small town of Perry, Florida, became the scene of a wave of racial violence after the murder of a white schoolteacher. Over the following two weeks, white mobs killed several Black men, burned Black homes and institutions, and turned the accusation against one Black man into a public spectacle of violence. The events became known as the Perry Massacre.
The Murder of Ruby Hendry
The violence began on December 2, 1922, when the body of Annie “Ruby” Hendry, a young white schoolteacher, was discovered beside a railroad track in Perry, the county seat of Taylor County.
Hendry had been brutally beaten and her throat had been cut. A train crew discovered her body in tall grass beside the tracks and alerted local authorities. Her murder immediately created fear and anger in the white community.
The investigation soon focused on a Black man known as Charles “Charlie” Wright. Wright was a 21-year-old escaped convict who had been living under an assumed name. Authorities linked a shotgun and razor found near the crime scene to him and began a manhunt involving armed men and bloodhounds.
As the search continued, white mobs began attacking the Black community of Perry.
Several Black institutions were burned, including a school and a church, amusement hall and Masonic lodge. Black homes were also targeted. The attacks took place before Wright had been brought before a court and before the evidence against him could be tested through a trial.
On December 6, Cubrit Dixon, a Black man traveling through Taylor County, was stopped by armed men who were searching for Ruby Hendry’s killer. They ordered him to raise his hands, and when he appeared to reach into his back pocket, they shot him.
The men searched Dixon after he was killed and found only a closed pocketknife in his pocket. No gun was found on him. Dixon became the first known Black victim of the violence that followed Hendry’s murder.
The Capture of Charles Wright
Authorities eventually arrested Wright in Madison County. Another Black man, Albert Young, was also arrested in Georgia and accused of involvement in Hendry’s murder.
On December 8, Wright and Young were being transported when a large white mob intercepted them. Contemporary accounts and later historical research put the size of the crowd at several thousand people, with estimates ranging from 3,000 to 5,000.
The mob took control of the prisoners.
Wright was subjected to torture and was reported to have confessed to killing Hendry. He reportedly maintained that he had acted alone and that Young had not participated in the murder.
Wright was taken to a location in Perry and burned alive at the stake.
His lynching became a public spectacle. Members of the crowd reportedly took pieces of his clothing and remains as souvenirs. Newspapers across the country reported the killing, exposing the brutality of the violence in Perry.
Albert Young remained in custody after Wright was killed. But on December 12, another white mob seized him while he was being transferred.
Young was shot repeatedly and his body was left hanging beside a highway in Perry.
The violence continued even after Wright and Young had been killed.
On December 15, Three days after young’s lunching, a Black man in Perry was reportedly accused of writing an “improper note” to a white woman. He was killed inside his home, which was then burned.
Aftermath
Dozens of Black families fled the area as the violence continued. The attacks therefore had consequences beyond those who were killed. Families lost homes, businesses and community institutions, while others were forced to leave Perry because they feared becoming the next targets.
For those who remained, the killings of Wright and Young had demonstrated what could happen when an accused Black man came into the hands of a mob.
No one was prosecuted for either lynching. Wright and Young were among the documented African American victims of racial terror lynching in Taylor County, where at least 15 Black people were lynched between 1877 and 1950.
The events in Perry occurred during a particularly violent period in Florida. Two years earlier, white mobs had attacked the Black community in Ocoee after Black residents attempted to vote. A month after the violence in Perry, white mobs descended on Rosewood, another predominantly Black Florida community, killing residents and destroying homes and businesses before forcing survivors to flee.
The Perry Massacre received less attention in later decades than Ocoee or Rosewood, but the events of December 1922 left a permanent mark on the town. What began with the murder of Ruby Hendry ended with the deaths of several Black men, the lynching of Charles Wright and Albert Young, and the flight of Black families from their homes.
The people responsible for the killings were never brought to justice, and the destruction left behind by the violence became part of the largely forgotten history of racial terror in Florida.
Sources:
https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/dec/12
