The Key West race riot occurred in 1897, after a 19-year-old black man was accused of raping a white woman in the city.
Key West, Florida, had been established for about a year when Sylvanus Johnson, a 19-year-old black man, was accused of raping Livington Atwell, a white woman.
[1] This was a public call, and the Miami Metropolis said it was intended to warn black residents of the city of a lynching.
[3] Soon, another group of black residents of the town surrounded the jail, promised to shoot any white person who tried to take Johnson,[3] and threatened to burn down Key West.
[4] Newspapers around the United States blamed the violence on Johnson,[3] although the Afro-American Sentinel from Omaha, Nebraska, praised the black community's vigorous defense of him.