The Moores Ford Lynching Murder: The Last Public Lynching in Georgia,US The last mass lynching in Georgia—and for that matter, in the country—took place on July 25, 1946. Two young black couples who worked as sharecroppers, Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey, were taken by an unmasked mob to the Moores Ford Bridge, on the Apalachee River at the border of Walton and Oconee counties. The couples were beaten and shot multiple times. This lynching was significant not only because of the number of victims but also because the crime was reported in national newspapers and led to mass rallies in New York City and in Washington, D.C. Georgia governor Ellis Arnall requested assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in finding the members of the lynch mob, and a few days after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked U.S. president Harry S. Truman to investigate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) entered the case. Despite these investigations, no indictments were ever returned. The Moores Ford lynching added fuel to the fire of civil rights activism, inspired a renewed call for federal antilynching legislation in Congress, and helped stir Truman to create the Presidents Committee on Civil Rights. Despite the reduced tolerance for lynching in the South after 1930 and increasing opposition to mob violence outside the South, antilynching legislation never materialized. In 1999 the Moores Ford Memorial Committee and the Georgia Historical Society erected a historical marker commemorating the 1946 lynching. It is believed to be the first official marker for a lynching in Georgia. In April 2006 the FBI announced that it would review its 1946 investigation of the crime. FR
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:52:20 +0000
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