The families gathering were not related by blood but by a cruel history. Nearly a century ago, their forebears had to flee their town of Rosewood, Fla., after a white mob burned their prosperous, mostly black town to the ground.

The Rosewood descendants still meet at least once a year to keep the story alive. After the town was wiped off the map, the incident was wiped out of the history books and the state's collective memory - until the families convinced Florida officials in 1994 that they deserved reparations.