'Welcome to Jay' documentary examines 'sundown town' reputation through a 2010 killing

A cross between a true crime and history documentary can describe the new independent film " Welcome to Jay. "

Filmmaker Jeffrey Morgan examines the town of Jay's reputation as a "sundown town" by examining the 2010 killing of an 18-year-old Black man by a 21-year-old white man at a party in Jay.

Gus Benjamin was shot and killed by Robert Floyd at an outdoor party at Floyd's home. Floyd was convicted of the murder in a 2011 trial and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

According to Floyd's arrest report following the shooting , though they were invited to the party, others at the party "did not like the idea of two black males showing up." The two men were asked to leave, one of the men showed a gun, and Floyd retrieved a rifle and shot into the men's vehicle as they attempted to drive away, fatally wounding Benjamin. Floyd claimed self-defense but was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.

The killing sparked racial tensions in the rural community, and Morgan said he found the incident was eerily similar to a 1922 killing of a white man by a Black man that led to an exodus of the small Black community that lived in the Jay area at the time.

Morgan said that at the heart of the story in his film, there is a tragedy that repeats almost 90 years apart and is almost on the same day.

"The quote from Mark Twain is 'History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme,'" Morgan said. "When the past isn't really reckoned with, it comes back, or it bubbles up in different ways. It played a role in what happened that night at the party where Gus lost his life, and Robbie lost his freedom for the majority of his life."

The trailer for the film was released on Thursday .

Morgan's film is set to premiere at the Tallahassee Film Festival on Aug. 31. The film was also selected for The Better Angels Society Lavine Fellowship, a nonprofit founded by filmmaker Ken Burns to promote the production of historically significant films. The organization selects five films annually that tell underrepresented stories about American history.

Morgan previously directed the 2007 film ""Lillie & Leander: A Legacy of Violence," a documentary about Alice Brewton Hurwitz discovering her family's connections to racially motivated murders in Escambia County, including the 1908 lynching of Leander Shaw in Plaza Ferdinand. The 2007 film can be rented or purchased on Apple TV.

"Welcome to Jay" has been a film that has taken nearly 13 years to come together. Morgan said while filming "Lillie & Leander," people he interviewed would talk about Jay's reputation as a "sundown town" where all Black people had to be out of town by dark. Then, in 2010, he heard about the outcry over the killing of Benjamin in Jay and knew there was an important story unfolding.

When Floyd went to trial, Morgan was in the courtroom to film every moment.

The film tells the story with footage from the trial and nearly 30 interviews Morgan has collected over the years. Included in the film is research uncovered by Pensacola historian Tom Garner into the 1922 killing of Sam Echols, a white man, by Albert Thompson, a Black man. The two got into an argument over a stalk cutter and Echols was shot. Thompson claimed self-defense and authorities had to move Thompson to the Navy base to prevent him from being lynched.

The News Journal reported on Garner's research in 2022 that uncovered compelling evidence that following Echol's killing the Black community of about 175 people in the Jay area were gone by the 1930 census.

Morgan said he talked to several older people from Jay who talked about the stories they heard growing up about what happened in 1922.

Morgan said the film tries to tell the story of what happened during both incidents and seeks to understand why they happened. He said it can be tough for people to talk about because at the center of both incidents is race.

History and race can't be separated, Morgan said, because racism is something that is taught to the next generation.

"I don't believe kids come out feeling that way," Morgan said. "… That stuff that was there comes from somewhere. It comes from the past."

Morgan said the film isn't trying to portray the town of Jay negatively or trying to solve the problem of racism.

"This isn't just the history of Jay," Morgan said. "This is the history of America. This is the history of almost every town all over this country. I felt that telling a larger story, which is sometimes may be harder to tell from that macro perspective, but telling it from this micro-perspective, where you're telling it through one town, and these two events and these individuals could really help people understand and empathize."

Tickets to the premiere can be purchased at the door for $10, or passes to the full festival  can b e purchased at TallahsseeFilmFestival.com.

Morgan said they hope to bring a screening of the film to Santa Rosa County or Pensacola sometime in the future.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 'Welcome to Jay' documentary examines 'sundown town' reputation through a 2010 killing