"The Monroe-Massacre" { July 7,1946}

Occurred of the most atrocious mass murders in the history of lynching in the United States  of  lynching in the United States.A lynch mob killed two young African American couples Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Murray Dorsey.


The sordid tale began when an African American named Roger Malcolm was arrested for allegedly stabbing his white former employer.A wealthy planter named J.Loy Harrison posted a bond for Roger's release.J. was taking Roger,his wife,Dorothy,her sister May Dorsey,and her husband,George Dorsey back to his farm to his farm when a mob 0f 20-30 white mob men waylaid their car at Moore's Ford Bridge over the Appalachhia River connecting Walton and Oconee Counties in Georgia.While the mob held  J.and the the two women at guinpoint,Roger and George were bound and dragged down an old wagon.Then one of the wagon recognized a member of the mob.He cried out "Get those damned women out,too." Both couples were tied to a tree while the mob lined up like firing squad and riddled them with gunfire.


The four were were tied up and shot hundreds of times in broad daylight by unmasked men.Murder weapons included rifles,shotguns,pistols,and a machine gun.Tuskegee University called it a "lynching." Despite an intense  invesgation by FBI and GBI agents,"The best people in town won't talk," said then-Georgia state Patrol Major William E.Spence.The climate of fear and threat of retaliation discouraged law-abiding citizens from cooperation with the investigation,"They have an idea who it is."


News of the brutal killings and the subsequent cover up swept across the nation.The New York Times alone 43 separate stories in 1946.This incident and two others enraged President Harry S.Truman and helped lead to historic changes:creation of the first ever-presidential commission on race;desegregation of the military;and passage of anti-lynching legislation.Yet,this civil rights milestone is nearly forgotten in Walton and Oconee Counties.There is neither mention in local histories nor on historical markers.There is only race-baiting graffiti at the bridge.The victims,including World War II veteran George,today lie in an unmarked graves.