By: Rene Childress

Our current journey takes us to 1946 Georgia. World War II is over. Many of the African -American  soldiers that have spent years in far off places fighting against tyranny and fascism are returning home. They believed like their fellow soldiers that they were fighting for democracy. Just like their forefathers returning from World War I ,they believed their efforts to overthrow the worst racist regimes in Europe and Asia would be the democratic elixir that would cure the hateful minds and hearts of their fellow americans. They believed that their efforts for strangers would win them those same rights and benefits back home. They were disappointed just like the African-American veterans returning from World War I.

The problem facing these returning veterans of World War II is that there was a continuing racial autocracy that was the lifeblood of southern culture and political tradition. White Southerners were not ready for their former property to be their equals. Not in politics, not in economic stature, not in culture would they allow their chattel to rise in status that would challenge their hegemony over the “Old South”. To understand the background that would bring us to the current “Worst Story Ever Told” certain facts need to be understood. In  April 1946 the United States Supreme Court ruled that white only primaries were unconstitutional. 

In the South including Georgia whomever won the Democratic primary was a shoe in to win the general election. So it became incumbent upon those interested in being elected to control who would vote in primaries. Quoting Time Magazine’s description of the 1946 electoral landscape of Georgia “ Gene Talmadge’s campaign had ripped the thin gauze of decency from the body of his state. Last week the nation saw the running sores beneath it.” Future Governor Talmadge’s campaign was filled with racist and violent vitriol. He even claimed that as a youth he beat and flogged sharecroppers who worked on his family’ farm. 

He campaigned on the vile religion of “States Rights”. He campaigned against the interference from the Federal Government overreach. Elections were supposed to be run by states as they saw fit. This of course meant that blacks would not be allowed to vote. 

Future Governor Talmadge ‘s need to cull rural votes drives the events we will be observing in this episode. We find ourselves observing the plight of two couples looking for work as sharecroppers.  They are George Dorsey age 28 and his wife Mae Dorsey age 25 and Dorsey’s pregnant sister Dorothy Malcolm age  20 and her husband Roger Malcolm. Roger Dorsey is a returning veteran who spent five years in the South Pacific. The two couples were hired by J. Loy Harrison in early July. 

Their fate takes a turn for the worse on a warm July 14th evening. The Malcolms Roger and Dorothy get accosted by a white farmer, Barnett Hester. They are told for some unknown reason that they must leave Hester’s property in an area popularly referred to as “Hester Town”.  The Malcolms are in the middle of a rural area on foot about an hour east of Atlanta. Angry words are exchanged. Threats were made. Roger Malcolm and Barnett Hester get into a tussle. At some point Malcolm stabbed Barnett with an ice pick.  Barnett’s relatives hold Roger for the authorities. Walton County Sheriff’s deputies Lewis Howard and C.J. Sorrells arrest Malcolm and take him to the county jailhouse.  He is held for 11 days for attempted murder. 

Based  on a much later investigation it appears that two days after the Malcolm arrest there is a confluence of several white men meeting in Towler’s Woods near Monroe, Georgia. It is believed that the lynching of Roger Malcolm is hatched at this conclave. Future investigators believed during this moment that Malcolm’s fate was decided. 

The conspiracy needed a lot of things to fall in place. First the judge of record has to reduce the charges and lower the bail to get Malcolm out into the open where he could be readily available to be kidnapped and murdered without openly involving the local law enforcement agencies.  The first domino to fall was the lowering of the charges and reducing the bail to 600 hundred dollars. The second part of the scheme was to put in play someone to come up with the bail. 

This was the sharecropping employer J Loy Harrison, a known Klan leader. He conveniently shows up on July 25, 1946 with the bail money with Mrs, Malcolm and the Dorsey couple in tow. Out of the goodness of his Klan heart he posts the bail to allow Malcolm to be free awaiting a trial he will never live to see. The next part of the scheme is to transport these two couples to a secluded area. J.Loy Harrison for some unknown reason takes a rarely used rural road on the return trip to his farm. He is unable to give a rational explanation why he drove out of the way down this rarely used road. Our group comes upon the entrance to the Moore’s Ford Bridge. Our group is met by several white armed men without masks on. 

Based on the retelling of events by Harrison the mob is led by a “tall dignified looking man of about 65, wearing a broad-brimmed hat”.  The men seized Roger Malcolm  from the vehicle saying “we want that nigger”.  According to Harrison the men pointed to Roger Dorsey and said “ We want you,too, Charlie”.

As they begin to drag the two men to the woods one of the women begins calling out the marauders by name entreating for mercy. Someone in the group yells “Git them bitches. Bring them over here. They know too much”. All four are led to the woods and are shot a total of sixty times. Their bodies are literally torn to pieces. Mr. Harrison claims that he cannot recognize any of his unmasked neighbors. The very same neighbors that one of the victims was able to call out by name.  He claims that they let him go after the well dressed leader stepped in and told him to go on his way.  After the mob sated their blood lust they unceremoniously tossed the bullet riddled bodies into a nearby riverbed . 

 The discovery of this grisly crime drew national attention and outrage. The current Governor at the time of lynching was Governor Ellis Arnall. He was a progressive Democrat that pushed for civil rights reform in his first term, while his opponent Eugene Talmadge referred to him as a “nigger lover”. Governor Arnall offered a 10,000 dollar reward for evidence leading to arrest and conviction, there were no takers. 

President Turman involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI interviewed almost 3000 thousand people. They issued one hundred Grand Jury subpoenas. They were rebuffed at every turn. The entire town and surrounding areas’ people were either complicit or afraid to come forward, including the African-American community.  The word has gone out if you talk you know what is going to happen to you and yours. The entire community kept its silence to this very day with only one exception. Clinton Adams who was ten years old at the time came forward after nearly 40 years. During a 2017 interview with Atlanta Journal Constitution  he and a friend happened upon this lynching scene, stated “[We thought] we was gonna see them get beat up”. “It wasn’t funny after that”.

 Again and again these stories end with the rupture and destruction of Black lives and no consequences for the perpetrators of these events.  Lawlessnes  ran unabated when it came to putting “Niggers” in their place. It is rich that we see today the cry  for “Law and Order" from the same elements continually attempting to dismantle the civil rights we gained during the last sixty years. Are they not the same ones that have opened their arms to accept the modern day white supremacists. No one was ever arrested. No one was ever convicted. The community all knew who the villains were. The state and local authorities were complicit or maleficent or both. The families of these dead still cry out to this day for justice.  “Let  Us Not Forget”