Moore's Ford Bridge Lynching Back in Investigators' Sights

Once again, unfamiliar faces are poking around Monroe Georgia in rural Walton County, 40 miles east of Atlanta, Georgia. Moore's Ford Bridge near Monroe was the sight of one of the most violent racially-motivated lynchings in US history and the last recorded mass lynching.

What became known as the Moore's Ford lynching began with a trip from the local jail. On July 25, 1946, Roger Malcolm and George Dorsey, two local black sharecroppers were in their employer's car along with their wives. Dorsey's sister, Dorothy, was Malcolm's wife. Dorsey had just returned from serving in the South Pacific in World War II.

Their employer, a white farmer named Loy Harrison, had just posted bail for Malcolm after a fight with his landlord landed Malcolm behind bars. A group of 20 to 25 Ku Klux Klansmen waited at Moore's Ford Bridge for the group. They pulled Malcolm and Dorsey and their wives from the car and began to beat the men. The Klansmen then opened fire on the men with rifles, pistols and a machine gun. After realizing that the wives were able to identify some of them, they shot the women to death as well and cut one of the women's unborn child from her womb with a hunting knife.

Although, by all accounts, the men were well-known in the community and none were wearing masks, FBI agents sent by President Truman were unable to bring charges against anyone in the Moore's Ford lynching. It has never been known if the men's employer, Loy Harrison, had been a Klansman and in on the crime.

On Tuesday, almost 62 years since the crime, FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers announced that there is new evidence in the case that they are pursuing. Investigators have a ticking clock on the Moore's Ford lynching. Many of those suspected of involvement in the case have died over the years and the rest are elderly. Trying suspects for a crime that happen six decades ago can be fraught with trouble as memories fade and hard evidence degrades. The FBI has stated that they are committed to solving this unsolved crime and putting one shameful piece of Georgia's past to rest with justice being served.