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lune 27. 2007
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Page B3
J ustice
Congress Moves on Unsolved Murders
Division would
review Civil
Rights-era cases
(AP) — The U.S. House has passed
a bill to establish a new division of
federal prosecutors and FBI agents
focused strictly on cracking unsolved
murders from the civil rights era.
The bill, which is also moving swiftly
through the Senate, would authorize
$10 million a year over the next de
cade to create a unit at the Justice
Departm ent to pursue cases that have
sat cold for decades. It also would
earm ark $2 million per year in grants
for state and local law enforcement
agencies to investigate cases where
federal prosecution isn’t practical, and
another $ 1.5 million to improve coor
dination among investigating agencies.
The bill, passed 422-2, is named in
honor of Emmett Till, a black teenager
from Chicago who was beaten and
murdered in M ississippi in 1955 after
being accused o f whistling at a white
woman. His killers were never con
victed.
We must do something to right these
w rongs,” said Rep. John Lewis, a
Georgia Dem ocrat and civil rights
veteran who sponsored the bill. “We
We have cm obligation
... let us move to close
this dark stain on our
nation 's history.
- U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.
have an obligation ... let us move to
close this dark stain on our nation's
history."
State and federal prosecutors have
had a string o f successes recently in
reopening racially m otivated slayings
from the 1950s and 1960s, including
the 1963 Birmingham, Ala., church
bombing and the 1964 slayings of three
civil rights volunteers in Mississippi.
Old Files Contain Disturbing Revelation:
FBI investigated Georgia Governor in lynching
(AP) - N ew ly released files from
the lynching o f two black couples
in M onroe, Ga. more than 60 years
ago contain a disturbing revela
tion: The FBI investigated suspi
cions that a three-term governor of
G eorgia sanctioned the m urders to
sway rural w hite voters during a
tough election cam paign.
The 3,725 pages obtained by The
A ssociated Press under the Free
dom o f Information Act do not make
co n c lu sio n s about the still-u n
solved killings at M oore's Ford
Bridge. But they raise the possibil
ity that Eugene Tai m adge's politics
may have been a factor w hen a
w hite m ob dragged the four from a
car, tied them to a tree and opened
fire.
''I'm not surprised ... historians
over the years have concluded the
violently racist tone o f his 1946
cam paign may have been indirectly
responsible for the violence that
cam e at M oore's Ford," said Robert
Pratt, a U niversity o f G eorgia his
tory professor who has studied the
case. "It's fair to say he's one o f the
m ost virulently racist governors the
state has ever had."
Talm adge, w hodiedjust months
after his 1946 election to a fourth
term, dom inated G eorgia pol itics in
the 1930s and 1940s with a mix of
racism and pocketbook populism .
He cam e under FBI scrutiny be
cause o f a visit he m ade to the north
G eorgia tow n o f M onroe tw o days
before the D em ocratic gubernato
rial prim ary and a day after a highly
charged racial incident there, a fight
in w hich a black sharecro p p er
Georgia Gov. Eugene Talmadge attends a Democratic National
Committee meeting in 1936. (AP Photo)
stabbed and severely w ounded a
white farmer. The sharecropper was
one o f the four people w ho would
later be lynched.
In a report sent to FBI D irector J.
Edgar Hoover, the agent in charge
o f the investigation said T alm adge
met with George Hester, the brother
o f the stabbed farm er. Citing an
unconfirmed witness statement, the
agent said Talm adge offered im m u
nity to anyone "taking care o f
negro."
W hile the agent dism issed the
notion o f Talm adge's involvem ent
as "unbelievable," he said it still
merited investigation. Other memos
raised suspicions that state em
ployees could even have been ac
tive participants in the lynching.
The lynchings o f Roger and
Dorothy M alcom , and G eorge and
Mae M urray Dorsey on July 25,
1946. came eight days after the elec
tion and followed weeks o f sim m er
ing tensions.
There w ere rum ors that G eorge
Dorsey, an Arm y veteran, had se
cretly been dating a w hite w om an
— a taboo in the segregated South.
And the town's w hite establish
m ent w as enrag ed w ith R oger
M alcom , who was im prisoned after
sta b b in g w hite farm er B arney
Hester.
M alcom was waiting injail when
white farmer Loy Harrison paid $600
to bail him out.
Harrison said he was driving
M alcom , his wife and the other
couple home, when he was am
bushed by a white mob that sur
rounded his car near the M oore's
Ford Bridge. As many as 30 people
c o n v e rg ed on the v eh icle and
pul led out the two couples, dragged
them down a nearby trail and tied
them to trees.
Then the m ob fired three volleys
o f bullets at the couples, leaving
their dead bodies slum ped behind
in the dirt. O ne o f the victims, D or
othy Malcom, was seven months'
pregnant.
An outraged President Trum an
dispatched FBI agents to Monroe,
about 45 miles east o f Atlanta. But
the local com m unity — both white
and black — clam m ed up.
W hite farm ers were described
by the FBI as "extrem ely clannish,
not well educated and highly sen
s itiv e to 'o u ts id e ' c r itic is m ."
Harrison, for one, told police he
couldn't identify any o f the partici
pants.
Black families, w hooften share-
cro p p ed on w hite farm s, w ere
"frightened and even terrified"
when approached by FBI agents.
The M oore's Ford lynching is
am ong about a dozen other un
solved cases from the civil rights
era that the FBI has recently re
opened but the bureau refused to
com m ent on the ongoing investi
gation.
M ost recently, p ro secutors won
the co nviction o f reputed K lansm an
Jam es Ford Seale on federal charges
o f k idnapping and conspiracy in the
1964 deaths o f C harles M oore and
Henry H ezekiah Dee. The 19-year-
o ld s d is a p p e a re d from F ra n k lin
C ounty, M iss., in 1964, and th eir
bodies w ere found later in the M is
sissippi River.
Earlier this year, the Justice D e
partm ent announced it was reopening
investigations into about a dozen sus
picious deaths in the South. But law
makers and advocates say there are
dozens, if not hundreds, more cases
that are ripe for review.
Apology to Teens
Kicked Off Bus
(AP) — Tri Met has apolo
gized to the family o f a lesbian
teenager who was kicked off
a bus when a passenger com
plained about her kissing an
other girl.
"Removing the girls from
the bus was not consistent with
our policy," said TriM et G en
eral M anager Fred Hansen. "I
want to reiterate that we wel
come all riders on our sys
tem."
The 64-year-old bus driver
will face disciplinary action for
removing the two 14-year-old
girls during a June 8 incident
aboard his bus, TriM et offi
cials said. But nodetails about
the discipline were released.
The driver, an 11 -year vet
eran, violated several agency
procedures and policies, offi
cials said.
The girls said the driver
called them "sickos" after a
female passenger com plained
ab o u t th eir kiss. He then
stopped the bus along the street
and forced them off.
The actions by the girls did
not warrant being rem oved
from the bus. and Tri Met policy
requires operators to call for
assistance before rem oving
any minors, a June 20 state
ment from the transit agency
said.
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Credit Card Thief Wanted
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