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| Mae and George Dorsey, Roger, and Dorothy Malcolm. Two married couples were killed on this day in 1946 at the hands of “persons unknown” |
July 25, 1946 - Walton County, Georgia,
Four negroes were apparently slaughtered today near Moore’s Ford. Two men,
Roger Malcolm and George Dorsey and their wives Dorthy Malcolm and Mae Murry
Dorsey. Dorthy Malcolm was also George Dorsey’s sister. George Dorsey was a
veteran of World War Two and fought in North Africa and the Pacific. Roger
Malcolm had a two-year-old son who was taken in by family members in Toledo,
Ohio after his father’s murder
Dorsey had been working on the
farm of Loy Harrison as a sharecropper Malcolm was a sharecropper as well but
had been working shares on the farm of Barnett Hester near Madison Georgia
previously but on the 11th of July Malcolm was arrested for assaulting Hester,
stabbing him with an ice pick. Hester later told a grand jury that the stabbing
was accidental and occurred when he was trying to stop Malcolm from assaulting
his wife. Hester told the grand jury he did not resent the
man. On the 25th Malcolm had been released on bond put up by
Harrison after agreeing to work shares on his farm.
After posting bond Harrison was
driving the two couples back to his property on the back road outside Monroe,
Georgia near the Moore’s Ford Bridge when they were intercepted by a mob of 20
armed White men. It’s questionable why Harrison took this route and did not
take the direct and shortest route back to his farm. The Moore’s Ford Bridge
between Walton and Oconee Counties was out of his way. Many people also
questioned why he put up the bond, for a man he didn’t know who was likely to
be convicted of attempted murder soon. While he was suspected of setting up at
least Malcolm for lynching Harrison insisted he was innocent of any
participation for the rest of his life. In
his own account Harrison states when the mob called to pull Dorsey from the car,
they called him ‘Charlie” and Harrison tried then to interfere telling the mob
they had the wrong man, but the mob leaders threatened to shoot him too.
Harrison also stated that at first, the mob looked like they were going to leave the women
alone until Mrs. Malcolm called out some of the men by name since they were not
masked. It was then that the apparent leader of the mob ordered the two women
to be brought over to the trees and tied there with their husbands.
The mob then began firing their
guns at the four, hitting them at least 60 times each. Moore’s Ford Bridge
spanned the Apalachee River 60 miles east of Atlanta, and it was at the end of
a dirt cut-off that Harrison later led law enforcement to the bodies. Later
speculation though was that law enforcement might have been involved given the unusually
low bail or Malcolm.
Funerals were held on July 28 Dorothy Dorsey Malcom and her brother, George Dorsey had services and were buried in the cemetery of Mount Perry Baptist Church in Bishop, Georgia. Mae Murry Dorsey's funeral was at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Monroe, and she was buried in Zion Hill Cemetery in Morgan County; Roger Malcom is believed to be buried at the Chestnut Grove Church Cemetery in Monroe.
By the time of the funerals news
of the killings had gone nationwide gaining the attention of Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall who offered
a reward of $10,000 for information on the killers that led to a conviction. The
lynching also outraged President Harry Truman who ordered the Justice
Department and FBI to investigate. President Truman also issued an executive
order in December 1946 establishing the President’s Committee on Civil Rights,
which issued a host of recommendations including federal anti-lynching
legislation. All attempts to introduce this legislation were stymied by
the block of Southern states.
Arnell called for justice and
better civil rights but was careful of how he phrased it as he was in a heated
primary against former Governor, also a Democrat, Eugene Talmadge who was a
White Supremacist who fought against voting rights, and when Arnall called for
equal rights Talmadge shot back that there was no valid reason to give equal
rights and that nothing could be gained by doing so. Talmadge also tried
to convince people he was against lynching and that none had occurred in his
previous terms. This was an outright lie as there had been 14 lynchings of
Blacks in the years he had previously been governor. Arnell lost the election to
Talmadge, who then stated that the lynching was regrettable and that he would
do everything in his power to, “keep such atrocities at a minimum”.
The FBI interviewed some 3000
people. Even so, they could turn up witnesses. They also investigated reports
that Talmadge had been in Walton County talking with Barnett Hester’s brother. Agents
sent information to FBI Director J Edgar Hoover. What was concluded was that
the Whites of the two counties were, “Clannish and silent and communicated to
each other to stay quiet, the Negroes were fearful and wouldn’t talk either.”
While there were numerous
questions about Loy Harrison and his decisions, Talmadge being in the area, and
the sheriff and arresting deputies not investigating the deaths, no one ever
went on record with testimony or allegations. A federal grand jury was still
empaneled in Athens, Georgia but failed to produce an indictment, deciding that
the Malcolms and the Dorseys were shot multiple times, “at the hands of
person’s unknown”
Several times the Georgia Bureau
of Investigation and the FBI have reopened the case because of public protests
or witnesses coming forward. There has never been even as much as a posthumous
accusation on record. In 1999 a marker was placed erected by the Georgia Historical
Society and the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee at the site of the murders.
Sources:
https://www.georgiahistory.com/ghmi_marker_updated/moores-ford-lynching/
https://www.waltontribune.com/article_d00f7dc4-91d9-11e9-9fbc-67dc09a0c13f.html
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution/123444535/
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4359004-GBI-Moore-s-Ford-File.html#document/p327/a400968
https://www.libs.uga.edu/news/moores-ford
https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/the-moore-ford-lynching-1946/r8bGQrWUH8YRCD1KKUMvRM/
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