BY DEVIN HEFLIN
     ORLANDO - The story of July Perry’s storied struggle to attain voting rights for African-Americans comes to life in a play at Mt. Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Orlando. 
     In honor of Black history month, the tale will center on the plight of African-Americans in Ocoee, Perry and his sacrifice to register voters in the election of 1920.  The census of that year placed the previously unincorporated town at a thousand residents, with 495 of those listed as African-American. 
     Today’s Ocoee has an African-American population that comprises 12.8 percent of the general area. 
     “July Perry was a very influential Negro in those days. When whites were looking for Black workers, they came to him.” Glen Barbour, the plays writer and director, said. 
     Barbour, who’s written and produced seven plays for Mt. Pleasant, wants to get across a historical, but also emotional message. “The reason why I decided to do this story is because it was a story under the rug. It will not be taught in schools.” 
     He said that, people, like himself, a Harlem New York native, had only heard bits and pieces of the story. Barbour’s former career as a television news writer helped him to research and write the historical epic, which features a cast of members of the church. 
     According to the research, it was Perry and his colleague, Mose Norman that fought to register Blacks to vote, often in the line of bodily harm from Klansmen. 
     Barbour added that he got the vision for the production one morning, and called a fellow member of the church about his role. Richard Albert, who will portray the title character, remembers getting the call that morning. 
     “He said that I was thinking about who would play the role of July Perry and he said that he had the perfect person to play that part.” He said. 
      Albert, like Barbour has been a longtime member of the church. Both men remember a period of racial unrest in the nation. The playwright recounts some of the discrimination that he encountered as a journalist and researcher in the early days of television news and Albert marched in demonstrations held by civil rights activists in Atlanta. 
     Most African-Americans, due to harassment from Klansmen in the 20s, left the town of Ocoee. With this production that will be held on Sun. Feb. 19 at 4:00pm at the church, Barbour wants to tell the story of a man that gave so much for a population so disenfranchised. 
     “The purpose of this play is not to incite people, but to entice them.”