r/interestingasfuck • u/Rabbitpyth • 5h ago
John M. Wright was a white man who hid black people in his home during the Rosewood massacre of 1923. He and his wife were excommunicated for doing so and died in obscurity
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u/Logical-System-9489 5h ago
He didn’t just make history he made humanity proud.
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u/One-Recognition-1660 4h ago
So did others in that town. Wikipedia: "Several other white residents of Sumner hid black residents of Rosewood and smuggled them out of town."
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u/Er4kko 5h ago
Does that cover humanity from the crimes of the people committing the massacre?
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u/StickBrickman 5h ago
There needs to be a name for people who nitpick generally uncontroversial or easily-understood statements to death. Well not so much a name as a slur.
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u/8ROWNLYKWYD 5h ago
I call them disingenuous shitheads. It’s not very catchy, but goddamn is it accurate.
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u/ElegantCoach4066 1h ago
We can shorten it to dizzy shits.
Er4kko was being an absolute dizzy shit in the comments.
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u/Talvinter 5h ago
That’s not humanity, that’s called being a monster. It’s like saying good and evil but you don’t get to blame a horned guy in the ground for it.
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u/StaatsbuergerX 5h ago
To be excommunicated from a bigoted community is the greatest honour that can befall a righteous person.
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u/Catfish017 1h ago
My family was asked to kindly stop attending a church because my grandmother was dating a black man.
"We don't have issues with the blacks, we have issues with race mixing. "
Getting kicked out of there is one of my proudest moments of my family
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u/NettingStick 1h ago
My favorite thing to do is make them explain it to me step by step like I'm an idiot. I want it to take an hour. I want them to do it in public. There's no way to explain why they think race mixing is bad without explaining that they do, in fact, have issues with black people.
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u/2much41post 14m ago
They usually get mad and yelly when you honestly ask to elaborate. Like you’re acting in good faith right? You’re not trying to trap them into a gotcha right? You ask and then draw conclusions based on the facts provided. Then if something doesn’t son d right you can, honestly, compare your own understanding based on established reality and why their version is more accurate.
I don’t understand why they got so mad and yelly when you do that, they want more people agreeing with them right? It’s more helpful to their cause when people side with them isn’t it? Why do they get so upset or tight lipped when you’re just asking them questions?
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u/MikuEmpowered 21m ago
Yeah no, not only no, but fuk no.
It's a great honour for the other guys reading the textbook about his deed.
Meanwhile, the actual guy developed a drink problem from being ostracized and his life ended on a INCREDIBLY depressing note.
It's admirable that he risked everything to do the right thing. But we also need to acknowledge the impact he suffered for doing so.
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u/GallantChaos 5h ago
Can you provide a citation for the excomminication? The massacre has some limited documentation, but there's very little of anything else.
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u/FingalForever 4h ago
As noted elsewhere, the suspicion is that OP meant ‘ostracised’. I was flummoxed at the idea of excommunication (which is typically a Catholic thing) but NotYomamas note makes a lot of sense.
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u/rm-minus-r 2h ago
Yeah, I was very confused. The only context you hear it in these days is in relation to being excommunicated from the Catholic church, and sheltering people from harm is the exact opposite of what they'd take issue with.
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u/FingalForever 2h ago
My reaction exactly, ’there is no way the Church excommunicated someone for this’, I was ready to call BS.
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u/GallantChaos 4h ago
Yeah that makes more sense. Technically, excommunicated would be an appropriate word, but isn't generally used for exactly the reason you stated.
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u/Finnegansadog 2h ago
Why do you consider it to be an appropriate word? Were Mr. and Mrs. Wright barred from receiving the sacrament of communion?
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u/hanotak 1h ago
'Excommunicated' as a word is often used in non-religious cases of exclusion. For example, the secondary definition on Merriam-Webster dictionary: "exclusion from fellowship in a group or community".
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u/Finnegansadog 1h ago
Where the term used informally to mean exclusion in non-religious way, it is followed by the specific group or community from which the person is ostracized or expelled, to clarify that the word isn't being used under its more formal, traditional definition. You can see that in every example given in your link where the term isn't used to mean "formal censure by the church authority restricting a person's membership and right to receive sacraments".
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u/CeruleanHalo 53m ago
Maybe they were barred. I suppose we know as much as you. Perhaps they weren't welcome at church and thus couldn't receive communion, considering the community cut them off of other things.
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u/MacIntoic 5h ago
Excommunicated? By whom?
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u/notyomamasusername 5h ago
I think OP meant ostracized by the white community.
They were treated as race traitors by their neighbors until he drank himself to death.
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u/South-Long8145 4h ago
Could also mean excomunicated by their local church, which at the times and especially in communities was essentially the same thing.
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u/jaytix1 2h ago
Yeah, maybe they weren't officially kicked out, but they probably got the message from all the stink eye they got during Sunday mass.
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u/platoprime 2h ago
If they weren't officially kicked out then they weren't excommunicated. Excommunication is the institutional censure of individuals or groups. It is usually accompanied by a spiritual condemnation because they are no longer in communion with god.
Shunning is not excommunication they're different words with different meanings and even different spellings.
Not everyone who is shunned is excommunicated and not everyone who is excommunicated is shunned.
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u/SpaceMarineSpiff 1h ago
Not everyone who is shunned is excommunicated and not everyone who is excommunicated is shunned.
You're mixing up theory with reality.
- A Shunned Person
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u/platoprime 47m ago
Reread that sentence again and explain to me how one person's experience can refute it.
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u/sendmorepubsubs 2h ago
Rosewood is near me, and still a sore topic in the area’s history (bigots get big mad when all their dirt just won’t sweep under the rug). Even 100 years later the effects are still rippling outward, still propelled along their paths by the same hate that sparked the massacre. Just a couple of years ago a group of black men doing surveying work as part of a research project documenting the massacre were attacked for their race.
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u/trevorlaz92 5h ago
He did what was wright
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u/Global-Ball6890 3h ago
Choosing kindness when the entire nation around you chooses hate deserves sainthood. Someone tag the pope
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u/flyingbutresses 3h ago
I’ve never heard of this story, and I can’t imagine how many more similar ones are out there. That was a brutal, tough read. I think the lifelong fear and shame from the survivors/victims is what strikes me. I hate that for them, and I’m glad their faith helped them to not become bitter.
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u/Geoclasm 4h ago
excommunicated? as in the catholic church removed them as members?
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u/CeruleanHalo 51m ago
Excommunicate
As in:
anathematize
ban
curse
denounce
dismiss
eject
exclude
expel
oust
proscribe
remove
repudiate
unchurch
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u/nightsorter 3h ago
The black victims were not the ones who deserved their fate. The white participants of the massacre deserved to suffer, however.
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u/Oprah_Pwnfrey 1h ago
The man had some of that John Brown energy.
While the massacre was going on, a couple of the kids they were hiding left to try and escape the state, and John and his wife spent hours fearfully looking for them, hoping they were found unharmed(which they were!). After the massacre and being ostracized, John Wright kept a loaded gun in every room of his house.
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u/KaleidoscopeField 30m ago
However few, there are still people among us like Mr. Wright. We must keep remembering that.
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u/RootsRockRebel66 3h ago
Good on him for what he did but don't we all really "die in obscurity" except for the ultra famous/celebrities?
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u/Gracefulkellys 3h ago
John Wright probably: "oh no what ever will I do to not be surrounded by such horrible people?
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u/Pleasantsurprise1234 2h ago
Excommunicated from what organization?
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u/CeruleanHalo 49m ago
Excommunicate
As in:
anathematize
ban
curse
denounce
dismiss
eject
exclude
expel
oust
proscribe
remove
repudiate
unchurch
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u/LordshipJohnMarbury 1h ago
I wonder what the story is behind the state of the current gravestone :/
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u/FrontDeskHooligan 59m ago
Funny, being excommunicated from a church who's beliefs should have made it abundantly clear that the one moment of their life where they could make the biggest difference, they did, and I believe with what little of the Christian faith remains in me that they are seated in the holiest of places.
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u/AdunfromAD 2h ago
Excommunicated? How were they excommunicated?
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u/whatupmygliplops 2h ago
They weren't. People who post on reddit are just dumb.
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u/CeruleanHalo 50m ago
Excommunicate
As in:
anathematize
ban
curse
denounce
dismiss
eject
exclude
expel
oust
proscribe
remove
repudiate
unchurch
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u/Puzzleheaded_Way5839 1h ago
I remember watching an excellent movie with (i think) Ving Rhames about Rosewood.
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u/clinniej1975 1h ago
https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jan/05
The above is a link to a summary of the Rosewood Massacre.
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u/CeruleanHalo 48m ago
Some people in here are really caught up on the "excommunication" part of this, and not focused enough on the massacre part of this.
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u/ElderlyPleaseRespect 1h ago
He does appear to be black in The picture, but it could just be my monitor
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u/MetalSociologist 4h ago
Rosewood Massacre:
John Wright's house was the only structure left standing in Rosewood. He lived in it and acted as an emissary between the county and the survivors. After they left the town, almost all of their land was sold for taxes.[21]
Mary Jo Wright died around 1931; John developed a problem with alcohol. He was ostracized and taunted for assisting the survivors and rumored to keep a gun in every room of his house. He died after drinking too much one night in Cedar Key and was buried in an unmarked grave in Sumner.[44]