Editing Ocoee, Florida (section)

==History==

===Founding and early history===
In the mid-1850s, Dr. J.D. Starke, stricken with [[malaria]], took a group of slaves, similarly stricken, to the north side of an open pine wooded lake that provided clear and clean water to avoid further malaria outbreaks. The camp built by the group provided a base of operations from which to commute during the day to work the fields near [[Lake Apopka]] and rest at night. 

As the camp grew into a village, it took the name Starke Lake, a name the lake upon which the group settled bears to this day. The city's population increased further after the [[American Civil War]] as Confederate soldiers and their families settled into the area, including Captain [[Bluford Sims]] and General [[William Temple Withers]] who wintered at the location.<ref name=OcoSet>{{cite news|last=Maguire|first=Nancy|date=September 17, 1998|title=Ocoee House Is Gateway To Past|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1998/09/17/ocoee-house-is-gateway-to-past/|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel|location=Orlando|publisher=Tribune|access-date=March 24, 2014|archive-date=March 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324223704/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-09-17/features/9809120576_1_nancy-maguire-ocoee-toured-the-house|url-status=live}}</ref> Captain Sims received a land grant for a 74-acre parcel to the west of Starke Lake in what is now the downtown portion of Ocoee on October 5, 1883.<ref name="Historic Orange County">{{cite book|last=Fyotek|first=Cassandra|date=2009|title=Historic Orange County:The Story of Orlando and Orange County|publisher=Historical Publishing Network|pages=144|isbn=978-1893619999}}</ref> In 1886, Captain Sims, along with a group of original settlers, led an effort to have the town [[plat]]ted and changed the name to Ocoee, after a river he grew up near in Tennessee.<ref name="Historic Orange County"/> ''Ocoee'' is a [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]] Indian word anglicized from ''uwagahi'', meaning "[[Passiflora incarnata|apricot vine]] place"<ref name="FLOC">[http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/Directory.aspx?iID=363 "City of Ocoee"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626205324/http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com/Directory.aspx?iID=363 |date=2013-06-26 }} at Florida League of Cities municipal directory. Retrieved 15 September 2016.</ref> and this inspired the choice of the city's flower.<ref name="COO">[http://www.ocoee.org/728/City-History "City History"] at City of Ocoee official website. Retrieved September 15, 2016.</ref>

Bluford Sims began groundbreaking work in budding wild orange trees while in Ocoee.  His commercial citrus nursery was the first in the United States in Ocoee, supplying many other groves in Florida with their first trees as well as shipping young citrus trees to California.<ref name="FLOC"/>  The construction of the [[Florida Midland Railway (defunct)|Florida Midland Railroad]] in the 1880s spurred growth in the area and many more settlers moved in.<ref name="COO"/>

===Ocoee massacre===
{{main|Ocoee massacre}}
On November 2, 1920, after [[July Perry]] and Mose Norman, two [[African American|Black men]], attempted to vote and encouraged other Black people to vote, the entire Black population of the town was attacked by a mob organized by the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. On the night of the massacre, white [[World War I]] veterans from throughout Orange County murdered dozens of African-American residents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wesh.com/article/ocoee-leaders-seek-eminent-domain-over-area-believed-to-be-historic-black-cemetery/30434506|title=Ocoee leaders seek eminent domain over area believed to be historic black cemetery|first=Bob|last=Hazen|date=January 7, 2020|website=WESH|access-date=November 6, 2020|archive-date=September 12, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240912063526/https://www.wesh.com/article/ocoee-leaders-seek-eminent-domain-over-area-believed-to-be-historic-black-cemetery/30434506|url-status=live}}</ref> At least 24 Black homes were burned, the institutions constituting the Black community were destroyed, and Perry was [[lynching|lynched]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brockell |first1=Gillian |title=A White mob unleashed the worst Election Day violence in U.S. history in Florida a century ago |url=https://www.chron.com/news/article/A-White-mob-unleashed-the-worst-Election-Day-15693837.php |access-date=2 November 2020 |newspaper=The Washington Post |via=Chron|date=2 November 2020}}</ref> Before the massacre, Ocoee's Black population numbered approximately five hundred; after the massacre, however, the Black population was nearly eliminated. For more than 40 years, Ocoee remained an all-white [[sundown town]].<ref>Edward Ericson Jr. [http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?id=897 "Dead Wrong."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812012452/http://www2.orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?id=897 |date=August 12, 2011 }} ''Orlando Weekly''. October 1, 1998. Retrieved September 15, 2016.</ref><ref>''[http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall01/white/default.html Go Ahead On, Ocoee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110013256/http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall01/white/default.html |date=January 10, 2013 }}'' - A Narrative Documentary Film by Bianca White & Sandra Krasa.</ref> In 2018, the city commission issued a proclamation formally acknowledging the massacre and declaring that Ocoee is no longer a sundown town.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ocoee, where massacre occurred in 1920, aims to shed past reputation as 'sundown' town|first=Stephen|last=Hudak|work=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|location=Orlando, Florida|date=November 20, 2018|page=A1|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange/os-ne-ocoee-massacre-proclamation-20181115-story.html|access-date=March 11, 2019|archive-date=March 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328001748/https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange/os-ne-ocoee-massacre-proclamation-20181115-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Incorporation and modern history===
Ocoee was incorporated in 1922<ref name="FLOC"/> (or 1923<ref name="COO"/><ref name=OcoInc/>) and became a city in 1925.<ref name="COO"/>

Highway construction was the impetus for Ocoee's growth in the 20th century. State Road 50 (SR 50) was constructed south of downtown Ocoee in 1959 and provided a direct east-west connection between the City and a growing Orlando. The development of what would become [[Florida State Road 50]] made the town more accessible to housing developers.<ref name="COO"/>  [[Florida's Turnpike]] was opened just south of downtown Ocoee in 1964.<ref name="COO"/>  In late 1990, Ocoee was connected to Orlando by a western extension of [[Florida State Road 408]] (the East-West Expressway) which then joined the Florida's Turnpike south of SR 50.<ref name="COO"/>  In 2000, the completion of [[Florida State Road 429]] (the Western Expressway) linked Ocoee with [[Walt Disney World]] to the south.<ref name="COO"/>