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Testimony of Wilson Hall. Hall states that his father, Charles Bacchus Hall, was very involved in the community of Rosewood before his death around 1920 and worked as a farmer, a merchant, a principal of the local school and a pastor at the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church . Hall recalls that his mother Mary Hall worked for John Wright, the local storeowner, doing domestic chores after Charles died. During the Rosewood massacre, Hall describes hearing gunshots, seeing fires burning across the community, and fearing that his family home would be the next one targeted. Hall remembers that his mother arranged through John Wright for her and her children to escape via the Seaboard Atlantic train line to Gainesville during the first few days of violence. According to Hall, a part-time turpentine worker named Henry helped him, his mother, and his siblings flee their home into the woods. Hall recalls waiting for several days and nights in the woods with other surviving women and children and that many of them started getting sick by the time the train was ready. Wilson states that the train was operated by the Bryce brothers. Wilson recalls that when the train arrived in Gainesville, his mother and his siblings went to live with his mother's brother Joe Davis. Wilson Hall states that he had to drop out of school in order to work and support his mother and siblings. Hall recalls seeing John Wright speak to his mother about the land the Hall family still owned in Rosewood and that his mother signed some papers in relation to it. Hall says that his mother never spoke of Rosewood again and that he grew up with a generalized fear that people would find out that he was from Rosewood. James Peters, Assistant Attorney General of the state of Florida, cross examines Wilson Hall.

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