By b5df0c7259679dc968b3ab355ca581cdc> James Faucett The Walton Tribune
Published November 3, 2004
MONROE - Not enough is being done by law enforcement to bring suspects in the 1946 Moore's Ford lynching to trial, said members of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, who visited the Moore's Ford bridge Saturday.
"We just think there needs to be more of a concerted effort on the part of prosecutors to move forward with the information that's already been uncovered," said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), GABEO president,referring to investigations conducted by the FBI and GBI. "Why federal andlocal prosecutors have not moved forward is a big puzzle to us."
Two African-American couples, George and Mae Murray Dorsey and Dorothy and Roger Malcom, were slaughtered by a lynch mob of unmasked white men at the Moore's Ford bridge in July 1946.
GABEO members visited the site for a memorial service and educational forum as part of their annual fall conference. In attendance were GABEO attorneys who had seen the police reports and thought there was enough evidence to indict suspects in the lynching.
"There's a feeling among the black community in Walton County and beyond that there's no real desire to prosecute those who were involved in the horrible, horrible tragedy," Brooks said.
Former Gov. Roy Barnes ordered the case reopened three years ago at Brooks' request. Brooks attended briefings on the case with Barnes and currently has written reports of investigations done by the FBI and GBI from 1946 through the present.
"There's a great deal of bewilderment as to how something like this could occur. All these years, the GBI and FBI and all of these other law enforcement agencies have been working and no one has been charged," Brooks said.
GABEO, an affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,presented its fall conference Oct. 29-31 in Athens. GABEO is based in Atlanta.
