Other Black students in Ocoee will also be eligible for the funds. The scholarship will be a $305,000 recurring appropriation from the state's general fund and will be available "indefinitely," according to Bracy.
In the days leading up to November 2, 1920, Ku Klux Klan members marched through Black neighborhoods in Ocoee, threatening Black residents not to vote. In defiance of the threats, Mose Norman, a Black Ocoee resident, made multiple attempts to reach the ballot box, but each time he was turned away by white poll workers.
After the polls closed, a mob of deputized white men carrying guns came in search of Norman, who was thought to have taken refuge in the home of his friend, Julius "July" Perry. Norman wasn't there, but Perry fought back, engaging in a gunfight with members of the mob. Perry was captured and taken to an Orange County jail, where he was later kidnapped, lynched, and left bullet-ridden and hanging outside the home of a federal judge who had advised him on voting rights.