A Florida man is facing charges after for yelling racial slurs and attempting to run over a prominent Black historian, his son, and other people, according to Miami Herald.
The incident reportedly happened on Tuesday, September 6 in Rosewood, where 82-year-old Dr. Marvin Dunn and his son Douglas Dunn, was standing outside a property he bought 10 years ago. The Florida International University professor emeritus was telling a group of people that he plans on building an educational home dedicated to the state's racist history, and that's when 61-year-old David Allen Emanuel approached them, according to reporters.
Emanuel asked what they were doing and why Dunn's car was parked outside his home. Dunn tried explaining to Emanuel that it's legal to park on the road, but things escalated from there. Emanuel allegedly got into his pickup truck and drove towards the group, screaming the N-word at them and nearly hitting Dunn's son, the historian told Miami New Times.
“He went into a rage. Started screaming at us and calling us ‘n*****s’” he recounted to reporters. “Then he guns his truck at us at full speed and makes this attempt to hit us.”
Dunn reported the incident to police, but he says the driver wasn't immediately arrested. The scholar then went to social media demanding the Levy County Sheriff's Office investigate Emanuel.
“To the Levy County Sheriff, I spent six years in the uniform of a United States naval officer who now, at age 82 was assaulted by a racist with a truck calling me a [n-word],” he wrote on Twitter. “My disappointment is not in my country but in a sheriff’s department that won’t even ask me about it."
What made the situation even more disappointing for Dunn was that his five-acre land is the only Black-owned property in the community. Rosewood used to be a thriving Black community until a racial massacre in 1923 destroyed all that progress and history, similar to the Tulsa Race Massacre. The professor planned on making a "peace house" to honor to lives lost in that tragedy.
Several days later, a judge signed a warrant for Emanuel's arrest and he was detained on September 12. The 61-year-old was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon his bond was set at $50,000.
This was news Dunn was relieved to hear, and he thanked his followers for amplifying his calls for an investigation.
“I feel more respected ... feel as if I got listened to,” he told Miami Herald. “The police did their job.”
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