Ku Klux Klan members were questioned but never indicted for the killing.
United States authorities are investigating whether some of those responsible for one of the American South’s most notorious mass lynchings are still alive, in an attempt to bring prosecutions over the brutal unsolved killings.
FBI agents have questioned a man in Georgia about the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynching of 1946, the man told the Guardian. The man was among several in their 80s and 90s named in connection with the incident on a list given to the US department of justice by civil rights activists.
Speaking at his home in Monroe, about 16km west of the lynching site, Charlie Peppers denied taking part in the killings of four African-Americans who were tied up and shot 60 times by a white mob.
“Heck no,” said Peppers (86) when asked whether he was involved. “Back when all that happened, I didn’t even know where Moore’s Ford was.” Peppers, who was 18 at the time of the lynching, said: “The blacks are blaming people that didn’t even know what happened back then.”
A report by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) published last week found at least 700 more lynchings than had previously been recorded in Southern states, renewing calls from campaigners for any suspects to be brought to justice before they die.
Last mass lynching
The Moore’s Ford incident, widely described as the US’s last mass lynching, stands out as a particularly brutal case even in Georgia, where more lynchings were recorded between 1877 and 1950 than in any other state, according to the EJI study. The report was the result of almost five years of investigations into lynchings in 12 Southern states.
No one was prosecuted for the killings on July 25 1946 of two black couples in their 20s: George and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Dorothy and Roger Malcom. According to unconfirmed claims from the time that are now asserted by campaigners, Dorothy was heavily pregnant and her unborn baby was cut from her body by the attackers.
An outraged President Harry Truman ordered a federal investigation and rewards totalling $12 500, worth more than $150 000 today, were offered for information leading to a conviction. A grand jury was convened and heard evidence for three weeks. Yet no indictments were brought for the killings, which have long been linked to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Roy Barnes, then-governor of Georgia, reopened the state’s inquiry in 2000 and the FBI reopened its case in 2007.
Georgia state representative Tyrone Brooks, who leads an annual re-enactment of the lynching as part of a campaign for justice, said the absence of prosecutions still hurts black residents.
“There is a lot of pain, a lot of frustration and a lot of disappointment because it has always said, like other cases have suggested more recently, that black lives don’t matter.”
Claims of involvement
Peppers was accused of being involved by his nephew Wayne Watson. Video footage of Watson (57), claiming in 2013 that Peppers and several other men from the area had spoken of their involvement in the killings, was given to the US department of justice by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).
“All through my life, I heard them talk about the Moore’s Ford and the lynching,” said Watson, in an April 2013 interview. “I’m tired of it, when you go through life, and you’re living with lies.”
Watson alleged that several of the men he named were KKK members. When asked this week, Peppers denied he is or ever was a member of the KKK. Watson said he had given information on the lynching to the city police but was ignored.
Watson made his remarks to Benjamin Jealous, who was then the NAACP president. Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s Washington Bureau director, told the Guardian this week that during a meeting he handed a DVD containing the video footage to Thomas Perez, who was then the head of the justice department’s civil rights division and is now the US labour secretary, and urged him to take action.
“We already knew it was true that some of them were still here, and still alive, but we just needed people who could name names,” said Edward Dubose, an NAACP national board member and former Georgia branch president, who has campaigned for many years on the issue.
Peppers said he was visited at his home by two FBI agents, one man and one woman, last year and was questioned for about 40 minutes. He said he asked them: “Why in the world are y’all bringing stuff up that happened 60 years ago. Why didn’t y’all do something about it then?” The male agent called Peppers a week later to ask for further details of his family, he said.
Alleged affair
The victims of the lynching, who were sharecroppers, were killed after Roger Malcom was bailed from Walton County Jail on charges of stabbing Barnette Hester, a 29-year-old white farmer. Hester was rumoured locally to be having an affair with Roger’s wife, Dorothy, according to Laura Wexler, the author of Fire in a Canebrake, a 2003 book on the killings.
The couples were seized by a crowd on a dirt road while being driven home in a truck by Loy Harrison, a white farmer who had paid to bail Malcom out of jail.
They were beaten, dragged to a clearing beside the Apalachee River and shot. Harrison, who escaped unharmed and said he was ambushed, has been accused by civil rights activists of being a Klan member and helping to set up the lynching.
Investigators at the time reported difficulty in obtaining statements and evidence on the killings. A conspiracy of silence among the white residents of the area was blamed. Bullets and shell casings were recovered from trees and the surrounding area but little other evidence existed at the time.
The killing of George Dorsey, who was a veteran of World War II, caused particular outrage. Eventually about 55 suspects or people of interest were identified. Several were called to testify to the grand jury but none was charged.
In July 2008 the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said they had collected material from a home in Walton County that was being investigated further. Watson said in his interview that he had provided the tip-off for that raid.
‘Pending investigation’
Special agent Stephen Emmett, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Atlanta field office, declined to discuss the case or Peppers’s questioning.
“We’re not going to be able to confirm or clarify any development that you’re describing,” said Emmett. “It’s still a pending investigation.”
The department of justice did not respond to several requests for comment. A spokesperson for the GBI referred all inquiries to the FBI.
Watson told Jealous he had been shunned by members of his family after entering into a relationship with a black woman. “I want it all over with, the racism,” he said.
Watson said in the video that he had spent time in jail. According to public records, he was convicted in 1999 of obstructing a law enforcement officer.
He could not be reached for comment. Two neighbours at his last known address said he had been evicted and was now thought to have no permanent home. – © Guardian News & Media 2015