Crowds Brave Heat for Reenactment of Moore's Ford Bridge Lynchings

[Editor's note: Some of the photos depicting this event might be disturbing to some viewers.]

A crowd braved the heat Saturday for the seventh annual reenactment of the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynchings that took place in Monroe 65 years ago.

The reenactment depicts the July 25, 1946 murders of black sharecroppers George and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcom at Moore’s Ford Bridge on the Walton-Oconee County line.

The couples were ambushed after Roger Malcom was bonded out of jail where he’d been held for stabbing a white farmer. According to the narration of the reenactment, he was the intended target, but when George Dorsey fought to prevent him being taken by the mob, and one of the women recognized someone in the crowd, they were all dragged from the car and murdered. All four were shot multiple times.

The crime was never solved, but in 2001, former Gov. Roy Barnes commissioned the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to re-open the case. In 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation also again became involved and in 2008, President George W. Bush signed the Emmett Till Act allocating funding to help solve crimes such at the Emmett Till murder in Mississippi in 1955 and the Moore's Ford Lynchings.

Robert Howard, of Social Circle, who has devoted much of his life to getting the case solved, narrated the reenactment. He said he is beginning to think it could possibly be solved in his lifetime.

"I think maybe so," he said. "Maybe so."

Howard said he believes that is partly because of the attention focused on the events through the annual reenactments and prayer vigils and partly because it is now a different time and people no longer consider it OK for such crimes to go unsolved. He said the cloak of silence is finally lifting.

"After the last prayer vigil I had five people come forward, and I was able to get them to speak to the FBI," he said.

State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, headed up Saturday's proceedings that moved from the First African Baptist Church to the gravesites of the victims and the farmhouse where the altercation between the farmer and Roger Malcom took place.

At the Walton County Courthouse Annex, once the old jailhouse where Malcom was held, the reenactment showed first a political rally by then Gov. Eugene Talmadge followed by the bonding out of Malcom and the fateful trip over the Moore’s Ford Bridge. The reenactment concluded at the bridge with the lynchings, a gospel song and a benediction.

Tracie Roberson came from Stone Mountain with her children to attend the event.

“This is my first time to see it,” Roberson said. “My daughter is going into the sixth grade, and they will be spending quite a bit of time learning about civil rights. I thought it would be good to enlighten them about some of the historical struggles.”

A lifelong Walton County resident, on his way to look at property in Oconee County, came upon the reenactment preparations on the bridge and decided to stay and watch it.

"I've heard about (the reenactment) but I've never seen it before," he said, adding he was born in 1946 and growing up in the years that followed the murders, he knew something had happened, but said it was something that just wasn't spoken about. 

"If you ever asked about it, you were just told to shhhh - not to ask," he said, adding, "I hope they solve it."

Every year when the reenactment takes place, critics of the event say the facts are distorted for the sake of theater and that it fans the flames of racial hatred instead of allowing for healing. Those involved  say the opposite is true - solving the crime will help with the healing.

The case remains open, and there is a $35,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of anyone found guilty of these murders. Anyone with information is asked to contact the GBI at 404-244-2600 or the FBI at 404-679-9000.