The Rosedale Banishment

On September seventh, nineteen twenty-three, Johnstown Mayor Joseph Cauffiel issued an extraordinary and illegal order: all Black and Mexican residents who had lived in the area for fewer than seven years were commanded to leave immediately, under threat of imprisonment. By some accounts, more than two thousand people were forced out of their homes and livelihoods in a matter of days. The expulsion drew national attention.

Black journalists and activists publicized what had happened, prompting a state investigation. Public opinion turned against Cauffiel, and he lost his reelection bid. The Rosedale Banishment stands as one of the most brazen acts of government-enforced racial expulsion in twentieth-century American history, carried out not by mob violence but by mayoral decree.