Lynching Reenactment in Georgia Dramatizes Call for Indictments in 59-year-old Case

The past decade, investigations have been re-opened into some of the most heinous crimes against African-Americans in the south. Some perpetrators of those crimes who are still alive, have finally been prosecuted and convicted. The most recent example is this summer's trial and conviction of 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen. Last month, Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for orchestrating the 1964 execution of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner - three civil rights workers in Mississippi.

However there a number of other cases throughout the South that remain unsolved. One of those, is a 59 year old crime that many call the last mass lynching in the United States. It took place in Monroe, Georgia, about 40 miles east of Atlanta. Two black men and two women, one who was seven months pregnant, were killed in broad daylight by a white mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge over the Apalachee River. No one was ever prosecuted in the case. On Monday, members of the community staged a reenactment of the murders and called for the U.S Attorney General's office to open an investigation into the still unsolved case.

* Tyrone Brooks, Georgia State Representative. He is president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, which organized the lynching reenactment.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/28/1410224