9th annual Moore’s Ford Bridge Lynching reenactment takes place on Saturday
Annual event held to raise awareness about unsolved murder
- Joeff Davis
- State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, speaking at Thursday’s news conference.
Yesterday, on the 67th anniversary of the Moore’s Ford Bridge Lynching, a group led by state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, D-Atlanta, gathered underneath the Eugene Talmadge statue at the Gold Dome to announce the 9th annual reenactment of the violent lynching, which takes place this Saturday in Monroe.
On July 25, 1946, a local white farmer named Loy Harrison bailed out Roger Malcolm at the Walton County Jail in Monroe. Malcolm, who was black, was in jail for stabbing a white farmer days earlier. With Harrison were Malcolm’s wife, Dorothy, and George Dorsey and his wife, Mae Murray.
On the way back from the jail, the car was stopped by a mob near the Moore’s Ford Bridge. All four African-Americans were taken into a field, tied up, and shot more then 60 times. Harrison, the only white person in the vehicle, was unharmed and later claimed he was unable to identify any of the killers. The story provoked national headlines, leading President Harry Truman to dispatch Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to the county.
The case has never been solved.