10/14/2026
We are proud to honor those of the past by telling their stories today. All parts of our history are important and should be told.
Most people have never heard of one of the darkest chapters in this part of Florida, and that long silence is exactly why it still needs telling.
In August 1916, in and around the small farming town of Newberry west of Gainesville, a white mob seized and killed six Black residents over two days after a local dispute spiraled into violence. Among the dead was a woman named Stella Young. They were neighbors, workers, and family members, and no one was ever held to account for their deaths. For generations the story was buried, left out of the local histories and spoken of only in whispers by the families who lost people.
In recent years the community has begun to remember openly, gathering soil from the sites and dedicating memorials so the names are no longer erased. Remembering is not about reopening old wounds. It is about refusing to let real people vanish from the record as though they never lived at all. These were somebody's parents and children. What do you think it takes for a community to face the hardest parts of its own past?
