The Romey Lynchings: A Story of Lebanese Immigrants Collection 1905-1932

Materials in this collection are mostly in English with some in Arabic.

In the early morning hours of Friday, May 17th, 1929, a Lebanese immigrant was lynched in Lake City, Florida. He was shot multiple times and left to die along a lonely stretch of the road heading south out of Lake City to Fort White.

N'oula Romey (نقولا رومي) was the fourth victim of racial terror that year in Florida, and one of ten people who were lynched by white mobs across the US in 1929 alone. Just hours before, his wife Hasna (Fannie) Rahme was fatally shot by Lake City police in their store. Their tragic murders were the most gruesome and violent attacks on Lebanese immigrants in the US, but this was not an isolated incident. Their killing was a part, and the culmination, of a widespread pattern of racially-motivated hostility, vitriol and physical abuse directed at early Arab immigrants who came to, worked, and lived in America between the 1890s and the 1930s.

The Romey Lynchings: A Story of Lebanese Immigrants Collection includes primary sources used in The Romey Lynchings project.

Materials date from 1905-1932 and include newspaper articles and correspondence that contain accounts of anti-immigrant discrimination that predate the Romey lynchings, contextual material from the time period, racial violence, corruption in the law, and personal stories surrounding the tragic deaths of Nola and Hasna.

Researchers should be advised that materials in this collection contain harmful content, including racist and white supremacist language, graphic descriptions of lynching, and other forms of violence.

This collection is arranged chronologically.

The donor retains full ownership of any copyright and rights currently controlled. Nonexclusive right to authorize uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes are granted to Khayrallah Center pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. Usage of the materials for these purposes must be fully credited with the source. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials.

[Identification of item], The Romey Lynchings: A Story of Lebanese Immigrants Collection, KC 0046, Hoda Z. Nassour and Herbert R. Nassour Jr., MD, Archive of Lebanese Diaspora

Moses and Romey Family Papers circa 1911-2000s, KC 0044

The Romey Lynchings Project

Gift of Sandra Moses Ryland and Teresa Bishop Angove, 2019 and 2022 (Accession Nos. 2019.009 and 2022.008).

Processed by Amanda Forbes and Celine Shay, 2019-2020. Finding aid content contributed by Amanda Forbes, 2020. Finding aid created by Laura Lethers, 2024 February.