Moores Ford Lynching Essays - Georgia Lynching, Walton County

Moore's Ford Lynching The Long Route Home: On July 25, 1946, two young black couples- Roger and Dorothy Malcom, George and Mae Murray Dorsey-were killed by a lynch mob at the Moores Ford Bridge over the Appalachee River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties (Brooks, 1). The four victims were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by a mob of unmasked men; murder weapons included rifles, shotguns, pistols, and a machine gun. Shooting a black person was like shooting a deer, George Dorseys nephew, George Washington Dorsey said (Suggs C1). It has been over fifty years and this case is still unsolved by police investigators. It is known that there were atleast a dozen men involved in these killings. Included in the four that were known by name was Loy Harrison. Loy Harrison may not have been an obvious suspect to the investigators, but Harrison was the sole perpetrator in the unsolved Moores Ford Lynching case. The motive appeared to be hatred and the crime hurt the image of the state leaving the town in an outrage due to the injustice that left the victims in unmarked graves (Jordon,31). Many African Americans lived on farms and tended for white landowners. Bob Hester was a landowner, on this farm the Moores Ford Lynching began. On July 14, Roger Malcom followed Dorothy Malcom to Hesters farm, Roger was arguing with her. According to the original FBI report, Hunter 2 Hesters son, Barney, told Malcom to leave. As he was leaving a fight broke out between Malcom and Hester. Malcom then pulled out a knife and stabbed Hester in the chest. The reason for the argument is uncertain although at that time Barney Hester may have been having an affair with Dorothy Malcom. One of the neighbors said that the black community felt it had more to do with sex than anything else did (Suggs,C1). After the fight broke out, Barney Hester was taken to the hospital and Roger Malcom was taken to jail. On the morning before the lynchings, Harrison drove to the house of Dorothy Malcoms parents, who had begged with him to get Roger Malcom out of jail since the stabbing occurred. Harrison refused to pick him up at first, but suddenly changed his mind. Harrison took along with him Dorothy Malcom , who was pregnant at the time, and George Mae Murray Dorsey to Monroe. Their Harrison signed a $600 bond to bail Roger Malcom out of jail. Harrison, with the two black couples in his car, left the county jail at about 5:30 p.m. on July 25, 1946, and headed back along the Athens Highway toward his farm. Authorities said the route he chose was the longest way home, along a winding dirt road (Suggs,C4). According to Harrison, when he reached the bridge at Moores Ford, a car blocked his way (Rivers,1). A mob of twenty to twenty-five unmasked men stopped him at gunpoint (Suggs, C1). Then they took the two couples into the woods, tied them to the trees and shot them. They were so savagely beaten and overwhelmed with bullets that their bodies were ripped to shreds. The only way to tell the bodies apart was by their lips. Investigator Bobby Howard said. When questioning Harrison he told the local authorities and the FBI he could not identify any members of the Hunter 3 mob or explain how they knew which way he was coming home. No one was ever prosecuted for the slayings of the African Americans and why it happened is left too much conjecture (Rivers, 1). The six month investigation following the incident that came to be known as the Moores Ford lynching garnered sensational headlines that horrified the nation, but yielded nothing (Ford,1). FBI agents eventually left the county unable to break the code of silence that protected the killers. A state official was quoted as saying at the time that the countys residents were hampering the investigation by refusing to reveal what they knew (Suggs,C1). Over one hundred people were taken before a grand jury, but there was never any key evidence leading to the murderers. Anyone that may have had information was afraid to talk about the situation at that time. The fact that