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1946 Lynchings May Have Been Encouraged by GA Gov.

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Fri Jun 15, 2007 at 05:26:29 PM EST
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This is ugly:

Newly released files from the lynching of two black couples more than 60 years ago contain a disturbing revelation: The FBI investigated suspicions that a three-term governor of Georgia [Eugene Talmadge] sanctioned the murders to sway rural white voters during a tough election campaign. ...

"I'm not surprised ... historians over the years have concluded the violently racist tone of his 1946 campaign may have been indirectly responsible for the violence that came at Moore's Ford," said Robert Pratt, a University of Georgia history professor who has studied the case. "It's fair to say he's one of the most virulently racist governors the state has ever had." ...

Today, Talmage is remembered with a statue on the grounds of the Capitol. His name is also on the steel bridge spanning Savannah's harbor.

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    1946 Lynchings May Have Been Encouraged by GA Gov. | 5 comments (5 topical)

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    "A dagger of (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by jondee on Fri Jun 15, 2007 at 06:14:15 PM EST
    the mind produced by the heat-oppressed brain.."

    What do you say about the almost complete lack of public acknowledgment and meaningful public expressions of contrition for the legacy of not only hundreds of lynchings, but torturings, castrations, acts of terrorism against families and communities? This a mentality that existed -- and, on many fronts continues to exist -- in terminal moral denial. To exorcize the demons of the past, best to think about "panties on the head", what the radical muslimss do, and maybe The Contested South.

    Can bridges be UN-named? (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by lilybart on Fri Jun 15, 2007 at 06:18:50 PM EST
    We know that statues can be torn down (Saddam) but maybe there could be a movement to rename this bridge?

    Rural white voters ... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Meteor Blades on Fri Jun 15, 2007 at 07:25:39 PM EST
    ...would have been those who lived all around Preston, the Southwest Georgia town where, coincidentally, I was born in 1946. And I am completely unsurprised. You don't have to go back that far to find lynch-minded governors. Remember ax-handle Lester Maddox?

    Last Night I (none / 0) (#4)
    by Molly Bloom on Fri Jun 15, 2007 at 07:43:00 PM EST
    heard Lester Mattox on the TV show with some smart...

    I always think of Randy Newman when someone mentions Lester.



    Parent

    The murderous southern legacy (none / 0) (#5)
    by Aaron on Sat Jun 16, 2007 at 06:19:41 PM EST
    Considering the way events unfolded and what happened just prior to the murders, and the large-scale investigation by the FBI at the time, it sure has the unmistakable smell of a set up, followed by a cover-up.

    Lynchings and racially motivated murders perpetrated upon Black people were still happening in the South as late as the 1970s.  

    I know of one particular case that happened around 1975 in South Florida, where a young Black man 17 was found hanging from a tree in his front yard. The police dubbed it a suicide, and claimed they could find no evidence to conclude otherwise.  Coincidentally the young man was dating a white girl, whose family members had been threatening the boy.

    1946 Lynchings May Have Been Encouraged by GA Gov. | 5 comments (5 topical)

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