Florida has worked hard to cultivate its idyllic image as a sunny, pristine paradise. But beneath the outer garments of glitz, sun, and ocean are hidden deep secrets—secrets that have been intentionally buried beneath the sands of the former lynching capital of America.
When we teach our children about the horrors of the past, we do so in the hope that exposing the true nature of these atrocities will deter future generations from repeating them. This is Marvin Dunn’s impetus in writing The Beast in Florida,an unflinching and haunting look at the dark past of the Sunshine State. A symbolic embodiment of racial violence and hatred, “The Beast” openly prowled the nation between the Civil War and the civil rights movement. It reared its head for a variety of reasons—psychological, political, and economic—but the outcome was always brutal and often deadly. As we are reminded all too frequently, the Beast is not gone; it is merely bound up, waiting to loosen its chains.
From the bombing of Harry T. and Harriette Moore’s home on Christmas Day to Willie James Howard’s murder, from the Rosewood massacre to the Newberry Six lynchings, Dunn offers an encyclopedic catalogue of the Beast’s rampages in Florida. Instead of simply taking snapshots of incidents, Dunn provides context for a century’s worth of racial violence by examining communities over time. Crucial insights from interviews with descendants of both perpetrators and victims, as well as newspaper, police, and court reports of these events shape this study of Florida’s grim racial history. Rather than pointing fingers and placing blame, The Beast in Florida allows voices and facts to speak for themselves, facilitating a conversation on the ways in which racial violence changed both black and white lives forever.
Dunn—a Florida native who lived through some of the events described in this book—writes as an insider, adding previously unknown details to the historical record. This comprehensive and balanced look at racially motivated violence presents the underside of Florida history—a story of hatred and some of its deadly results. The result is a panorama of compelling human stories that challenges conceptions of what created and maintained the Beast.
Marvin Dunn, retired chairman of the Department of Psychology at Florida International University, is the author of Black Miami in the Twentieth Century.
“The Beast in Florida is the most original and courageous book of Florida history since Stetson Kennedy’s Palmetto Country was published in 1942.”—Paul Ortiz, author of Emancipation Betrayed
“Marvin Dunn has written an important chronicle of the most disturbing, yet little-known, racial atrocities in Florida history. The Beast in Florida is a catalog of the underbelly of Florida—a lineage of race riots, lynchings, and cold-blooded murder that is as much a part of the Sunshine State as bathing beauties, palm trees, and alligators.”—Ben Green, author of Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T Moore, America’s First Civil Rights Martyr
About the Author
Marvin Dunn, retired chairman of the Department of Psychology at Florida International University, is the author of Black Miami in the Twentieth Century.
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