Local

Moore’s Ford Bridge Murders: 68 Years Unsolved

July 24th, 2014

It has come to be known as the “last lynching in America.”

Tomorrow it will be 68 years since the murders at Moore’s Ford Bridge: killings in Walton County in 1946: killings that are still unsolved.Broadcast Version

On July 25, 1946, someone killed two African-American couples on the Moore’s Ford Bridge between Monroe and Watkinsville, right at the Walton County line. Rumors have abounded ever since then about the deaths of George and Mae Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcolm: it was the work of the Ku Klux Klan, that local law enforcement knew about – or even participated – in the killings.

State Representative Tyrone Brooks says he has been trying to get facts and action on this case from law enforcement for decades. “We know of many suspects who are still living. We know where they are.” said Brooks. “The law enforcement community know [sic] who they are, where they are. And we just wonder why they won’t go and pick them up and bring them to the bar of justice.”

Brooks spoke on the State Capitol grounds Thursday in front of the statue of Sen. Richard Russell. In Brooks’ eyes, the reason for the killings was as much about African-Americans gaining the right to vote as it was about the ostensible motive: the involvement one of the victims, George Dorsey, with a white woman.

“He was warned not to vote,” said Brooks, talking about Dorsey. “And he had a friend, a female friend, who happened to be Caucasian. They were seen together, and he was warned to stay away from her. He did not. So there was a lot going on around voting that got lost in the Moore’s Ford massacre. But today we wanted to highlight the fact that Senator Richard B. Russell, who was a neighbor in Winder, he let the attack to keep black people away from the polls.”

Officially, the case is still open, but there has not been any movement that law enforcement will talk about publicly. Brooks says Creative Loafing reporters have recently interviewed close to a dozen people who have knowledge of the case — white people –, which is movement, possibly making official – instead of rumor – information that has been whispered for almost 70 years.