In Alachua County, Florida, Mary Dennis and Stella Young were deemed guilty by association by a vigilante mob drunk off white rage. Stella Long’s husband had been accused of fatally shooting law enforcement, after he was confronted by law enforcement over the theft of hogs. Stella’s husband went on the run, but the white mob wanted someone to pay. They accused Mary Dennis and Stella Young, along with Mary’s husband, brother-in-law, and a family friend, of helping Stella’s husband escape. So the mob fatally shot one man and rounded up Mary Dennis, Stella Young, and the other men in what was allegedly called a “lynching bee.”

Through my art, I am reclaiming this moment in history as the “Strangest Fruit of Innocence,” as both women ceased to exist because being black and innocent, never stood against being guilty by association in white rage’s mind. 

Dunn History: Newberry Lynchings