After posting bail, Roger Malcom’s white employer, Loy Harrison, picked him up. Harrison was accompanied by Roger’s wife Dorothy and another Black couple, George and Mae Dorsey.
Driving back, Harrison drove a different route than usual. He took them to Moore’s Ford Bridge where 30 armed, unmasked white men ambushed them.
The mob led Roger and George to the woods. Terrified for their husbands' lives, Dorothy and Mae called out the names of white men they recognized, hoping to hold them accountable. This backfired.
The couples were tied to trees, shot and dumped in a river. Local officials discovered their bodies, and their murders gained national attention. Their deaths are now referred to as the “last mass lynching in the US.”
President Truman demanded an FBI investigation and anti-lynching legislation. He also called for the President’s Commission on Civil Rights. Decades later, the case remained unsolved and was officially closed. But what happened to Harrison?
Harrison couldn’t “identify any members of the mob.” But we can identify the need to protect ourselves. Refusing to let our stories go untold is crucial to seeking justice.