Arkansas State press. [volume] (Little Rock, Ark.) 1941-1959, 1946-08-02

rifles, shotguns, and pistol.
lynched four Negroes, two oil
them women on a lonely swamp
road Thursday evening, July rs
The massacre was so brutal unit
it aroused the whites, and Major
w. E. Spence, head of the State
Bureau of Identification, charac.
terized it as "the worst thinf
that ever happened in Georgia.
Lynching in the south isn't un-
usual, but from the standpoint Of
numbers, it can be described as
the most beastial that has hap
pened in many years.
]. 10y Harrison, described as a
wealthy white farmer, was the
only outside witness to the lynch
ing. He violated the code of the
white rural southerners when he
described the lynchers to the au-
thorities. Especially the huge
lank leader and the understood
youth dressed in soldier uniform
who held a shotgun at his head
while the mob cut their victims
down.
A coroner's jury convened soon
after the lynching. Its verdict
was that the Negroes met their
deaths at the hands of unknown
persons"
The lynchers were after Roger
Malcolm, farm hand, who was
alleged to have stabbed a white
employer, Barney Nestor, Jr.
They killed Malcolmn's brother
in-law, George Dorsey, a dis
charged soldier, apparently for
no reason than he was with him.
They killed the mems wives,
Dorothy and May, when one Of
them called out in evident recog-
milton of one of the lynchers.
Rep. Adam Clayton Powell
Friday demanded on the floor Of
the House that the Attorney Gen.
eral investigate the Georgia mas
sacre Immediately to apprehenc
the murderers and bring them to
justice. Rep. Powell also de-
handed that President Truman
send troops to occupy Georgia il
such incidents are repeated.
Maj. Spence pledged thorough
investigation. In Washington, the
Department of Justice said i
would investigate, and E. S. Cor.
don, the sheriff of Walton coun'
ty in which the lynching tool
place, said he was investigating
too.
This is not the first time
mass lynching has taken place il
Georgia. In 1918, May 10, 81
Negroes were lynched by a mo
in Brooks county, Georgia. On
of the six in 1918 was woman
who had dared to protest tn
lynching of her husband the da
before.
]. 10y Harrison had just pos'
ed bond of 5000 freeing Malcoll
from Jail. Malcolm had bee
recommended by Dorsey, WI
was already employed as a GOO
worker. He was en- route to h
farm with the two couples whe
the lynchers stopped him.
They were stopped on stretc
of swamp road on remote spo
lined with underground and tree
about 10 miles from Monroe an
fifty miles northeast of Atlanta.
Harrison, in his description c
the mob, said the leader was
towering figure weighing at leas
220 pounds. He wore a brow
suit and a broadbrimmed blac
hat. Long black hair, mottle
with gray, jutted out from hi
that and he was deeply sunburn
ed. He spoke like an educate
man, gave crisp commands to hi
followers, and sounded like "
retired doctor or general"
I'D know that voiSHagain if
heard it in the dark,' Harrison
said, land I'd recognize the DO,
who held the gun on me too, al
though he wouldn't look me il
the face"
The mob blocked the road wit
an automobile. They bound tn
two Negro men together an
deputies found their bodies sti
tangled in strands of bloody rop'
Harrison said: When the
tied those boys hands togethe
there wasn't a shaky hand in tn
crowd, except the Negroes. The
were determined to kill them an
as far as | could tell none of ther
turned hair"