Ocoee made history on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, when George Oliver was sworn in as its first black city commissioner. George Oliver sworn in as an Ocoee Commissioner In 1920 black resident July Perry was lynched when white Ocoee residents rioted after another black resident tried to vote. During the riot, more than 50 black residents were murdered, and the remaining black folks were chased out of Ocoee making it a “sundown town” as in “nigger don’t let sundown find you in this town.” Until the late 1980s, the U.S. Census showed only 2 black residents in Ocoee where the population at that time was 11,000. Today the Ocoee population is 45,000, 15% of whom are black. Hear the Ocoee mayor and new Commissioner George Oliver by  clicking here. For more news,  click here .