January 25, 2023 – April 16, 2023
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum |

Following the end of the Civil War, the American South saw a rise in Jim Crow laws. In the town of Rosewood, Florida, these codes prevailed. In 1923, fifty years after the 13th Amendment was passed, racial tensions peaked with a later-dispelled rumor about an assault on a white woman, leading Ku Klux Klan members to track, assault, and kill Blacks in Rosewood. Known now as the Rosewood Massacre, news of these murders and the destruction of the town was suppressed by state officials. Years later, Lizzie Jenkins clung to oral histories about her aunt, a survivor of the massacre, and founded The Real Rosewood Foundation (TRRF) to revive and research the history of Rosewood.

In commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the Rosewood Massacre, the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum presents An Elegy to Rosewood . Comprised of historic photographs and preserved heirlooms from Lizzie Jenkins’s family, this groundbreaking exhibition will explore the Jenkins family story and their tenacious desire to acknowledge this history. FIU Professor of History and Director of Women Studies, Dr. M. Alexandra Cornelius, provides historical insight and academic strategies for interpretation. These personal artifacts are shown alongside a work by painter and TRRF board member Pedro Jermaine, and three women artists based in Miami. After conducting research on Rosewood, artists Rhea Leonard, Charlisa Montrope, and Chire Regans produced artists’ books that further contemplate the circumstances around the Rosewood tragedy and offer ways of healing and proactive remembrance.

Our partner and venue:

Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum
10975 SW 17th St
Miami, Florida 33199