Four Negroes slain by armed Georgia band (7-25-46)

1

The Evening Star (July 26, 1946)

2 Negroes and wives waylaid and slain by armed Georgia band

Four taken away from white man after one is released from jail

MONROE, Georgia (AP) – A band of armed white men waylaid a white farmer and four Negroes on a secluded Northeast Georgia road late yesterday, Sheriff E. S. Gordon said today, and while holding the white man at gun point shot the Negroes to death.

Coroner W. T. Brown after an examination of the bodies estimated that 60 shots had been fired into the bodies of the four Negroes. The hands of the two Negro men had been tied behind their backs. Their wives were the other victims.

One of the Negroes, Roger Malcolm, 27, the sheriff said, had just been released from jail under $600 bond on charges of stabbing his employer, Barney Hester, a farmer.

The sheriff identified the other Negroes as Malcolm’s wife and George Dorsey and his wife.

The Negroes, riding in an automobile with Loy Harrison, a farmer, were en route from Monroe to Mr. Harrison’s farm in adjoining Oconee County when they were waylaid at a bridge over the Apalachee River, the sheriff said.

Couldn’t identify men

Mr. Harrison, at a coroner’s inquest last night, the sheriff said, testified that he could not identify any member of the band which waylaid him. The jury returned a verdict of death at the hands of unknown parties.

In Washington, Attorney General Clark’s office today announced that he has ordered a “complete investigation” into the slayings of the Negroes. The announcement said without further elaboration that the inquiry would be carried out by the civil rights section of the Justice Department.

The slayings, the sheriff said, occurred about eight miles east of Monroe, the county seat of Walton County, which is about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Here is the story of the slayings as told by the sheriff after questioning Mr. Harrison:

Dorsey and his wife worked on Harrison’s farm in Oconee County. Malcolm had worked for Mr. Hester, and Mr. Harrison, after Malcolm’s release from jail, had gone to Monroe to get him and his wife and take them back to jobs on the Harrison farm.

Armed band stopped car

Harrison, driving the car with the Negroes in it, approached a wooden bridge over the 100-foot-wide river which divides Oconee and Walton counties. A band of 20 to 25 men, armed with shotguns, pistols and rifles, stood in the road and ordered him to halt.

Mr. Harrison stopped the car at the entrance to the bridge, and the armed men ordered the two Negro men from the car and proceeded down a side road. Mr. Harrison and the two Negro women were held at the automobile.

Then Mr. Harrison heard one of the men in the armed band remark that one of the Negro women had recognized him, and several of the men came back and took the women from the car.

Mr. Harrison then heard shots. After the shots, the mob dispersed, and Mr. Harrison went back two miles toward Monroe and called Sheriff Gordon from a country store.

Riddled bodies found

The sheriff said he went to the scene immediately and found the bullet riddled bodies in the bushes along the side road, about 40 feet from where Mr. Harrison’s car had been parked at the entrance to the bridge.

The sheriff quoted Mr. Harrison as saying none of the men wore a mask.

The nearest house to the scene of the slayings was about a half mile away, the sheriff said.

Sheriff Gordon said that without identification of any member of the armed band, he had gone as far as he could with his investigation. He said he had called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a division of the state police, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had called him.

FBI agent John F. Trost said at Atlanta a report on the slaying of the four Negroes had been filed with FBI headquarters in Washington.

2

Tuskegee says lynching is first this year

TUSKEGEE, Alabama (AP) – A Tuskegee Institute official said today the killing of four Negroes by a band of white men in Georgia was the first incident of its kind reported in the United States this year.

A. L. Holsey, public relations director at the institute, said the last one occurred in Madison. Florida, in August 1945 when a Negro was taken out of jail and shot to death.

The last “multiple lynching” listed on Tuskegee’s records, Mr. Holsey said, was one in Quitman, Mississippi, in October 1942 when two 14-year-old colored boys charged with attempted criminal assault were seized by a mob and hanged from a river bridge.

3

The Pittsburgh Press (July 26, 1946)

GEORGIA MOB LYNCHES 4
Bullets riddle two Negroes and wives

Slayings follow stabbing of man

MONROE, Georgia (UP) – Four Negroes pleading for mercy were taken from the car of a white man and lynched late yesterday by a band of 20 to 30 men armed with shotguns, rifles and pistols.

The Negroes, two men and their wives, were waylaid on a lonely swamp road. They were en route from Monroe to the farm of Lloyd Harrison in neighboring Oconee County.

Bullets riddle bodies

Pleading that “we ain’t done no harm,” the Negroes were ordered from Mr. Harrison’s car and told to line up by some trees.

Scores of shots then were fired into their bodies.

Mr. Harrison had visited the county jail here only a few hours before and signed a bond for one of the Negroes, Roger Malcolm, who had been charged with stabbing a white man two weeks earlier.

The other Negroes had come to town to help arrange the release and all were on their way back to Mr. Harrison’s place.

Stopped at bridge

About 10 miles out of Monroe the road snakes its way through swampy country and across a narrow wooden creek bridge.

Mr. Harrison said he was almost on the bridge when, in the shadows of twilight, he suddenly saw the span blocked by between 20 and 30 white men.

“All I could do was pull up and stop the car,” he said. “I knew there was trouble, but I sure didn’t expect anything like what happened.”

Mr. Harrison said he could see the posse had shotguns, rifles and pistols. He said he did not recognize any of the men.

Negroes ordered out

The leader, a tall, rangy, sun-burned man who wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, stepped to the car and, ignoring Mr. Harrison, said to one of the Negroes: “All right, George, get out of the car.”

George Dorsey, Malcolm’s brother-in-law, and Malcolm stepped from the car, Mr. Harrison said, leaving the terrified women inside.

The leader signaled to a member of the band and poked a shotgun at Mr. Harrison.

“Don’t move,” Mr. Harrison was told.

The mob started to move off into the woods with the Negro men, apparently intending to leave the women unharmed. But when the killers were only a few yards away, one of the women screamed: “Oh Gawd, please stop, Mister…”

Apparently thinking he had been recognized, the posse leader yelled “halt,” cutting the last name off before it passed the woman’s lips.

Women dragged out

“Go back and get those women,” the leader ordered.

The women were dragged from the car and taken with the men about 50 yards away, where they were riddled with bullets.

When it was over, the leader told Mr. Harrison he could go but warned him he had “better not try any funny stuff.”

The guard, who had kept his shotgun cocked and aimed at Mr. Harrison’s head all the time, lowered the weapon, and the men disappeared down the road.

State promises probe

Maj. W. E. Spence of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took personal command of the investigation. He promised no stone would he left unturned in trying to bring the killers to justice.

“This is the worst thing that ever happened, and it’s going to hurt this whole state,” Maj. Spence said.

Mr. Harrison reported the lynchings last night to Sheriff E. S. Gordon.

Stabbing recalled

Sheriff Gordon said that the motive of the lynching probably was the stabbing incident on July 14.

On that day, the sheriff reported, Malcolm returned home drunk to his cabin on the farm of James Hester, a white man. He began beating his wife and when Mr. Hester intervened Malcolm stabbed his employer over the heart.

For several days, Hester hovered near death and Gordon put extra guards around the jail here.

Mr. Hester’s condition improved, however, and he is expected to recover.

Permitted to leave jail

Malcolm was permitted to leave the jail yesterday and was planning to go to work for Harrison on the latter’s farm.

The riddled bodies are at a mortuary here.

Tuskegee Institute, the Negro school in Alabama which keeps a record of lynchings, said the last previous one reported was that of Jessie J. Payne, a Madison, Florida, Negro who had been charged with criminal assault. He was taken from the Madison Jail and shot on October 12, 1945.

4

The Evening Star (July 27, 1946)

Arnall offers rewards of more than $10,000 for Negroes’ slayers

Says state police will remain in county until guilty are caught

ATLANTA (AP) – Ellis Arnall today offered rewards totaling more than $10,000 for solution of the mob slaying in Walton County of two Negro farm hands and their wives.

The usually cheerful state executive grimly told newsmen at a special press conference that he was ordering the state police to remain in the county “until the guilty parties have been identified and turned over to law enforcement officers.”

The governor said: “The decent people of Georgia are humiliated about the mass murder of four Negroes in Walton County by an unknown mob of some 20 desperadoes.

“As Governor of Georgia I am offering a reward to the full limit of the law. Five hundred dollars will be paid for evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of each participant in the massacre. These rewards will total more than $10,000. The lawless gang must be arrested and brought to justice.”

Called ‘worst incident’

The governor added: “This mass murder is one of the worst incidents ever to take place in our state. The killing of innocent people is disgraceful morally and legally.

“I am urging the local law enforcement officials of Walton County and all state agents to leave nothing undone in ferreting out the guilty parties. Civilized people everywhere will watch developments in connection with this heinous crime.”

Gov. Arnall’s statement followed a suggestion from the head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that the shootings near Monroe, 40 miles from Atlanta, was a “rehearsed affair.”

Fears it was planned

Maj. William E. Spence of the bureau said: “It looks like it was a rehearsed affair. It looks like it might have been planned since the Negro was first, confined to jail.”

He referred to Roger Malcolm, 27, who had made bond on a charge of stabbing his employer, a white man. Malcolm, his wife and George Dorsey and his wife were the mob’s victims.

Although an announcement from Washington said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would investigate the case for the civil rights section of the Justice Department, an assistant district attorney said: “So far it seems to be a state case.”

The assistant district attorney, Jack Gautier of Macon, said he came here to try to determine if there had been any violation of civil rights covered by federal statute.

Talmadge regrets ‘incident’

The only comment on the lynching to come from Eugene Talmadge, recently nominated for a fourth term as Georgia’s governor on a “white supremacy” platform, was that “such incidents are to be regretted.”

Mr. Talmadge is vacationing in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In Washington, Rep. Marcantonio (ALP-New York) asked President Truman for “prompt” federal intervention.

The details of the lynching were related by Loy Harrison, a well-to-do farmer who was held at gunpoint by the mob. He was taking the four Negroes to his farm to work after getting Malcolm out on bond.

Mr. Harrison said the band of 20 armed and unmasked men which waylaid them was led by a “tall, dignified white man” who counted “one, two, three” as three volleys were fired into the Negroes, lined up abreast.

Looked like business man

“The leader looked like a retired business man,” he said. “He was about 65, wore a brown suit and had on a big broad-brimmed hat. He looked like he had a good Florida sun-tan.”

The mob, he said, first took the Negro men out of the car and bound their arms behind them. Then, when one of the women recognized a member of the mob, several men came and took them too, he said.

“I didn’t have anything but a pocket knife,” Mr. Harrison said. “What could I do?”

The Negro women were sisters, Dorsey’s mother said he had just been discharged from the Army, and saw overseas duty in North Africa and Australia.

5

Negro Youth Congress asks martial law in Georgia

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) – The Southern Negro Youth Congress in a letter to Attorney General Clark today asked for declaration of martial law in Walton and surrounding counties in Georgia and a house-to-house search for the slayers of four Negroes.

The letter, signed by Executive Secretary Esther V. Cooper, said: “We declare that the government which cannot prevent or – failing to prevent – to punish such downright bestiality, can only earn the most determined contempt and organized opposition of freedom loving Americans.”

6

Maryland group urges president to act in Georgia

BALTIMORE (AP) – The Maryland Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked President Truman today for federal action to convict the killers of four Georgia Negroes.

“The record of the Justice Department in cases of this type shows that it has not accomplished anything in past investigations,” the organization said in a telegram sent to the president.

“Without your personal interest in this case we expect little from its efforts.”

The telegram was signed by Mrs. Lillie M. Jackson, president.

7

The Pittsburgh Press (July 27, 1946)

G-men, state officers launch hunt for mob in Georgia lynching

‘Worst thing that ever happened’ to state, Southern investigation chief declares

BULLETIN

MONROE, Georgia – Gov. Ellis Arnall today offered rewards totaling approximately $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of the members of the mob which lynched four Negroes near here Thursday.

MONROE, Georgia (UP) – Federal and state officers remained tight-lipped today as they attempted to piece together evidence disclosing the identity of lynch-slayers of four Georgia Negroes.

Neither the FBI ordered into action by U.S. Attorney General Tom Clark, nor Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesmen, would comment on the progress of the investigation.

Maj. W. E. Spence of the FBI reiterated that no effort would be spared in getting to the bottom of the “worst thing that ever happened to Georgia.”

They sought some 20 unmasked white men who Thursday took four Negroes from the auto of J. Loy Harrison, Oconee County farmer, and riddled their bodies with shotgun, rifle and pistol fire.

Stopped on bridge

Mr. Harrison had just obtained the freedom of one of the Negroes, Roger Malcolm, by posting a $600 bond. Malcolm was charged with stabbing a former employer, Barney Hester, 22,

Malcolm, his wife, and another Negro couple, Army veteran George Dorsey and his wife, were going with Mr. Harrison to work on his arm.

Mr. Harrison said as his car approached a bridge he found it blocked by another machine.

Can recognize leaders

Then several other cars, loaded with armed men, drew up behind.

“We want these Negroes,” a tall, sun-tanned man wearing a brown suit and black, wide-brimmed hat, said.

Mr. Harrison said the man was unarmed, stood over six feet tall, and must have weighed almost 220 pounds.

The older man and an undersized G.I.-clad youth appeared to be the mob leaders, Mr. Harrison said.

He said he would recognize the pair if he ever saw them again.

While Mr. Harrison was held at shotgun’s point, the four Negroes bound with rope. were marched screaming and praying for mercy, to the nearby woods.

Hears 60 shots

Mr. Harrison said he couldn’t see the shooting. but heard almost 60 shots fired.

Mr. Hester, the former employer whom Malcolm had been jailed for stabbing was still in the hospital and had not been informed of the lynchings today. He had been stabbed July 14 when he intervened as Malcolm was beating his wife.

Maj. Spence said the smoothness with which the mob operated indicated that the lynching “had been planned for two weeks.”

Georgia Gov.-Elect Eugene Talmadge told reporters in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that the multiple lynching was “to be regretted.”

Dorsey, who was Malcolm’s brother-in-law, recently was discharged from Army service after five years. He fought in North Africa, and was stationed in Australia.

8

The Pittsburgh Press (July 28, 1946)

Arnall offers $10,000 for lynch arrests

People’s fear blocks probe, officer says

MONROE, Georgia, July 27 (UP) – Gov. Ellis Arnall today offered rewards up to $10,000 for the “mob of desperadoes” which lynched four Negroes near here Thursday.

A state official seeking the killers said he was “up against a stone wall because the people are afraid to talk.”

Maj. W. E. Spence, head of the Georgia State Patrol, said that he would “wire every Georgia congressman, or ask Gov. Arnall to wire them,” asking their support of federal anti-lynching legislation.

He will make the request, he said, “because under the conditions now existing in Georgia we cannot cope with mob violence.”

Maj. Spence, annoyed at lack of progress in rounding up the lynchers, revealed that one suspect, a roadhouse employee, Lester Little, had been picked up for questioning but later released when the lone witness of the massacre, J. Loy Harrison, could not identify him as one of the slayers.

Maj. Spence said “we thought we had the man who perfectly fitted Harrison’s description of the mob leader, but Harrison now says the man was 20 pounds heavier than Little.”

Convicted of murder

Sheriff E. S. Gordon said Little once had been convicted of murdering the warden of neighboring Morgan County. Little, 71, served several years in prison for the crime.

Maj. Spence said “we’ll have to start all over again,” but added he had several more leads to track down, and that at Gov. Arnall’s orders the patrol’s state bureau of investigation would continue its relentless search for the killers.

Maj. Spence said, “We’ve had cases like this before and could do all right with them, but that was before the race issue became so prominent.”

He apparently referred to the recent gubernatorial primary in which Eugene Talmadge was returned to the governor’s chair on a “white supremacy” platform.

‘Heinous crime,’ Arnall says

Meanwhile, Gov. Arnall denounced the mass murder as a “heinous crime.”

Gov. Arnall offered, in the state’s name, rewards of $500 each for information leading to the arrest of any person in the mob, reported to number 20 to 30 men.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation also was here, at the orders of U.S. Attorney General Tom C. Clark, to determine violations of civil rights.

The four Negroes – two young men, one a veteran, and their wives – were taken, praying for mercy, from the auto of Harrison, Oconee County farmer, at dusk Thursday. Mr. Harrison was taking the four to his farm to work, after having posted $600 bond for the release of one of the victims – Rogers Malcolm – from the Walton County jail here.

Malcolm had been arrested July 14 on charges of stabbing his employer, Barney Hester Jr., when Mr. Hester intervened in a domestic squabble at Malcolm’s home.

Mr. Hester’s condition was serious in a hospital here.

Mr. Harrison’s story of the lynching, according to Sheriff Gordon and Coroner W. T. Bacon, told of his car being blocked at a creek bridge by two autos and a mob of white men, armed with shotguns, revolvers and pistols.

While one of the men held a cocked shotgun at Mr. Harrison’s head, the mob took the Negroes – first the men, and later the women – from the car, tied them loosely with ropes, and riddled their bodies with bullets in a wooded patch nearby.

Jailed for bootlegging

Sheriff J. M. Bond of adjoining Oconee County said Harrison had served a jail sentence of one year for bootlegging several years ago. Harrison has had no other trouble with the law, the sheriff said.

The lynching horrified most citizens of this prosperous farming county. But the towns – Monroe, Loganville and Social Circle – were quiet today, buzzing only with the usual crowds of Saturday shoppers and gossip about the affair.

Besides Malcolm and his wife, the victims were George Dorsey and his wife. Dorsey was a recently discharged veteran of five years Army service, including overseas duty in North Africa and Australia.

9

Editorial: The Georgia lynchings

The cold-blooded murder of four Negroes, two men and two women, by a mob near Monroe, Georgia, was an outrage which will reflect discredit upon the United States throughout the civilized world.

There was not the slightest provocation for “lynch law.” Only one of the four mob victims had been charged with any offense, and he had been released under bond, according to law, and was awaiting trial.

Georgia owes to itself, and to the whole nation, that every member of this mob be arrested and brought to trial for this dastardly, inexcusable crime. Prompt, decisive action in this case should make this the last act of its kind in one of the darkest pages of our history.

If Georgia doesn’t do the job – and there is always doubt how far a southern state will go in such a case, particularly after its passions and prejudices have just been inflamed by such a demagogue as Gene Talmadge – then the federal government must do it.

Georgia should have the first chance to clean up this crime. But if Georgia doesn’t do so, then this nation cannot allow a massacre that reflects on the entire American people to go unpunished.

Mobs are made up of cowards, of men without the courage to act alone. The arrest and conviction of this entire mob would demonstrate to reckless elements who resort to mob action that “lynch law” no longer is a refuge for scoundrels who disgrace their state and nation by wanton murder.