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Hundreds attend staged lynching
Published July 29, 2009
WALTON COUNTY — Five years after the dramatic re-enactment of one of the county’s darkest tragedies first began, the event is still going strong as hundreds of people came out to remember the lynching at the Moore’s Ford Bridge.
The event, a re-enactment of the death of four black sharecroppers — Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey — at the hands of a white mob in 1946, has been the centerpiece of local efforts for the last five years to bring attention to the unsolved crime.
“We don’t enjoy doing this, but we’re compelled to do this,” said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. “This is the last open mass lynching that remains unsolved. There is no statute of limitations on murder and we will not rest until the killers are brought to justice.”
The murders — and the historic re-enactment Saturday — of the Malcoms and Dorseys became national news at the time and brought a flurry of federal investigators searching for the men who killed the two families by the Walton-Oconee county line. Yet despite the scrutiny and a grand jury inquiry, no one was ever charged with the shooting deaths of the couples.
Brooks said the re-enactment was a brutal reminder of an event that must not be forgotten and a prod to continue investigating the murders decades later, even as many of those involved are certainly dying off.
“This is a pursuit of justice — a quest to uphold the rule of law,” Brooks said. “We don’t think the Malcoms and the Dorseys will rest until the prosecution of those killers still alive. The long arm of justice can reach out to find these killers.”
In fact, as part GABEO’s annual commemoration of the dark event, hundreds of people gathered at the First African Baptist Church in Monroe to hear speakers champion new attempts by the FBI and GBI to investigate the crimes, then traveled in a caravan through the county, following the final days of the couple before arriving at the infamous bridge.
“I wanted my children to see history,” said Patricia Ruiz, of Loganville, who came to the re-enactment with the little ones in tow. “I thought it was very well done. I was especially impressed so many people came out.”
Singing spirituals and calling for justice, the spectators watched as a mob of white men pulled the Dorseys and Malcoms out of their passing car, dragged them down by the bridge and then shot them in cold blood.
After the re-enactment, Brooks once again emphasized the importance of keeping interest in the case alive.
“People came from all over Georgia and all across America to see this,” Brooks said. “More people from Walton County were here than ever before. The turnout grows every year. We’re making progress.
“We are so grateful to everyone who helped us make this possible. We think the sixth annual re-enactment, should it be necessary, will be even better.”
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