Moore's Ford Bridge Mass Lynching

The year was 1946.

George Dorsey was 28 years old and had fought in World War II. He had been home only six months. He, his wife Mae, 23, his sister, Dorothy Dorsey Malcom, 20, and Roger Malcom, 24, were out together. Dorothy was the wife of Roger.

The place was Walton County, Georgia, on the Moore’s Ford Bridge.

Roger had been accused of stabbing a white farmer during a fight, but he had been bailed out of jail by a white landowner. This same white landowner, Loy Harrison, was apparently driving the car holding the four black people when it was stopped and its occupants dragged out when the car got to the bridge. It is unclear why Harrison bailed Mr. Malcom out – if he was sympathetic to Malcom or if he was part of the Ku Klux Klan.

At any rate, Harrison was driving the car, and when it got to Moore’s Ford Bridge, a mob of angry white people stopped the car and dragged all four passengers out. One part of the mob actually blocked the road so the car could not move, while other members of the mob beat the two men. None of the mob wore masks or hoods. One of the women apparently recognized one of the mobsters, and when she let it be known she knew him, she and the other woman were beaten as well.

Beaten, bloody and weakened, the four were taken down to the river, and, according to records, someone from the mob counted, “One, two three,” and everybody fired their guns. The four young people died at the scene, executed for being black and one for having allegedly attacking a white man. All of this took place in broad daylight.

President Truman called for a federal investigation of the crime. The FBI went down and gathered information about the crime, but nobody was charged. There were no indictments. There was no trial.

After the lynching, the white people developed a strict code of silence to protect the perpetrators. Black people, fearing retribution, were quiet as well.

The case is drawing renewed interest, largely because of a book entitled, “Fire in Canebrake,” by Laura Wexler. The FBI has reopened the case, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is working as well. It is the hope of family members who have been grieving the loss of their loved ones as well as being angered by the lack of justice, that something will be done, that someone, still alive and who was involved in the crime, will go to jail. Penny Young, the half-sister of Roger Malcom, remembers that it took years but that Medgar Evers’ killer, Byron De La Beckwith, was finally brought to trial and was convicted.

Surely, the river itself is calling out for justice.