sixty-five pupils at the Mount Dora school to sign a petition stating that the Platt children’s “right to an education has been taken away because of the opinions and prejudice of one man.” The next day, when school opened, the children found a chalk line running down the middle of the sidewalk; one side was marked “White People,” the other “Nigger Lovers.” One child who had signed the petition was stoned with pebbles. A deputy meanwhile visited the Platts with a message from the sheriff’s office “that if they weren’t out by that night, their house would be burned down.”
