When a black teenager is shot and killed attending a bonfire party in Jay, Florida, the town's racist past becomes its p | dG1fWk9JMHFOV1JfUTg
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00We still had half a keg left, and we wanted to get rid of it.
00:08Called him up, and I was like, hey, let's have a get-together.
00:11They said I was going to a party, and I was just like, okay, you know, let's go, so we
00:16went.
00:17All right.
00:18Brittany was asked to have Gus Benjamin and Gerald Banton, the only two black males, at
00:26this party.
00:27She was asked to have them leave.
00:29You motherfuckers got 10 seconds to get out of here.
00:3310.
00:34Jurors in Santa Rosa County heard opening statements in the murder trial of Robert Floyd.
00:38Nine.
00:39They were making other people uncomfortable.
00:41They wasn't dressed like a normal human being would dress.
00:44Eight.
00:45He would get along with anybody.
00:47If you're having a down day, it won't be down for long when he come around.
00:51Seven.
00:52So I run to my truck, and I grab my gun.
00:53As we was going, we heard a gunshot.
00:54First thing you know, it's Robert Floyd in the corner.
01:0110-7.
01:02I just shot somebody.
01:07They used to say that in the town of Jay, Florida, there used to be a sign.
01:19If I give a direct quote for it, it said, no bullshitting allowed.
01:25We played games down there, and the coaches would let us know that it's known for a racist
01:29town.
01:30The whole community was affected by this.
01:32Robbie was never racist.
01:33I've seen two black males walk up.
01:35It's always been a very friendly community.
01:37Two black males, having a white predominant county.
01:42I did hear about a lynching in Jay.
01:45You can hear all kinds of rumors.
01:46I'm sure it's just stories.
01:48A long time ago, colorful state over there.
01:52I was stunned when I first saw that census data.
01:55We're talking about infants, children, teenagers, young families.
02:00My husband was born in Jay.
02:02In 1930 census, they're just gone.
02:06I know there was a stir.
02:07I know black people lived in the area.
02:11In the newspapers, there's a story of a black man named Albert Thompson who kills a white
02:16man named Sam Eccles.
02:18You know, when they had the uproar over there, they had to come out of Jay.
02:23What they've been taught and what they've been told, it's not true.
02:27They come across that river, swim or die.
02:32One of my uncles told me about this.
02:34It was a massacre way back.
02:37And he said, bones were turned under.