Though most of the film is based on true events, the film's main character, Mann, is mostly fiction creation. He is likely based on a report in the Chicago Defender a week after the massacre, claiming that a soldier named Ted Cole appeared and fought against the lynch mobs. The claim was never repeated, nor verified.
Rosewood was located in Levy County, Florida, southwest of Gainesville, near Cedar Key.
John Singleton cited Schindler's List (1993) as a movie that was a major reason he sought out this specific film to direct.