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Lake City, Florida: A Sesquicentennial Tribute (2009) H. Morris Williams, Dr. Kevin M. McCarthy
According to Prof. Peek in his article entitled “Lawlessness in
Florida, 1868 – 1871,” Dr. E.G. Johnson, a white physician of Lake
City and a prominent Republican in the county and the assistant to the
U.S. Assessor for Florida, testified that, after he was elected to the
state senate in 1871, he received a letter from the Ku Klux Klan that
threatened serious harm to himself unless he immediately resigned. He
also noted that a large group of armed men rode into Lake City in
November 1871, firing guns and forcing a procession of African
Americans to disband after a political meeting. Another article by the
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same historian (“Curbing of Voter Intimidation in Florida, 1871”) noted
that armed men surrounded the house of the same Dr. Johnson in
February 1871 and fired shots into his house in an attempt to intimidate
him. 25
A photo from the 1870s shows Mrs. & Mr. F.M. Waldrep, the
maternal grandparents of Lake City resident Wash Robarts.
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www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 7C3282B3-DDE1-49C3-985A-3A9C9467368D
