Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America [Hardcover]

Laura Wexler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2003

On that July evening in 1946, the leader counted aloud and the mob of white men fired. Seconds later, the leader counted again, "One, two, three," and the mob fired once more. After the third and final volley of gunshots, the white men got into their cars and drove off, leaving the bullet-ridden bodies of two young black men and two young black women lying in the dirt near Moore's Ford Bridge in rural Walton County, Georgia. Since that summer evening, there have never been as many victims lynched in a single day in America.

Now, more than a half century later, Laura Wexler offers the first full account of the Moore's Ford lynching, a murder so brutal it stunned the nation and motivated President Harry Truman to put civil rights at the forefront of his national agenda. With the style of a novelist, the authority of a historian, and the tenacity of a journalist, Wexler recounts the lynching and the resulting four-month FBI investigation. Drawing from interviews, archival sources, and an uncensored FBI report, she takes us deep into the landscape of 1946 Georgia, creating unforgettable portraits of sharecroppers, sheriffs, bootleggers, the victims, and the men who may have killed them.

Fire in a Canebrake pursues the legacy of the Moore's Ford lynching into the present, exploring the conflicting memories of Walton County's black and white citizens and examining the testimony of a white man who claims he was a secret witness to the crime. In 2001, the governor of Georgia issued a new reward for information leading to the arrest of the lynchers. Several suspects named in the FBI's 1946 investigation are still alive, and there is no statute of limitations on the crime of murder.

Fire in a Canebrake -- a phrase local people used to describe the sound of the fatal gunshots -- is a moving and often frightening tale of violence, sex, and lies. It is also a disturbing snapshot of a divided nation on the brink of the civil rights movement and a haunting meditation on race, history, and the struggle for truth.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following a spate of excellent books on lynching-Without Sanctuary; At the Hands of Persons Unknown; A Lynching in the Heartland-comes this account of the murder of two black couples in Walton County, Ga., in July 1946. According to journalist Wexler, the murders of Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Dorsey were the last of more than 3,000 mob lynchings of African-Americans in the United States. Following clues from published newspaper reports, FBI and legal records, and interviews conducted in 1997 with the participants who were still alive, Wexler plots a dramatic narrative involving sex, jealousy and violence, with a surprise witness to the murders who surfaces in 1991 (43 years after the killings) claiming to have lived on the run from the Klan because of what he knew. But while Wexler's sense of pacing and denouement is rousing, and her intricate, careful portrayal of the social settings and racial imaginations of the post-WWII South are just as startling. The region was rife with a new sort of racial tension spurred by the demand for basic civil rights (particularly by returning black soldiers) to the point that, under direct orders of President Truman (who was under pressure from the NAACP and the Northern press), the FBI became involved in a lynching for the first time. Smart and highly readable, if much less broad than other recent books, Wexler's account uncovers compelling personal and historic material in equal measure.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

To the numerous books on lynching and the anti-lynching movement in America, Waldrep (history, San Francisco State Univ.) now adds a detailed study of the word lynching and its changing meaning over 200 years of American history. Legend credits Charles Lynch of Virginia as the term's source, based on his suppression of loyalists during the American Revolution through extralegal beatings and killings. The term became common currency during the 19th century to describe the killing by a mob of an accused individual, regardless of race. Though some newspapers condemned the practice, others saw it as a reflection of the popular will and a necessary means of maintaining order in frontier America. Following the Civil War, white Southerners used violence and terror to suppress black freedmen. By the beginning of the 20th century, anti-lynching activists like Ida B. Wells succeeded in defining the term as exclusively white-on-black violence. However, by century's end some critics began referring to the practice of legal lynching through abuse of the criminal justice system, and the existence of hate crimes against other nonwhites and gays suggest possible new ways to expand the definition. Waldrep's widely researched work provides an excellent overview of a horrendous practice in American society. In contrast to Waldrep's broad study, journalist Wexler's book focuses on the last mass lynching in America, when a mob shot two black men and two black women in Walton County, GA, on July 25, 1946. Though the killings became national news, law enforcement officials failed to identify the killers, and no one has yet been legally connected to the lynching. Wexler uses interviews, newspaper accounts, archival materials, and FBI reports to present the crime's background, police investigation, and aftermath. As with Waldrep's book, this reflective study is recommended for all libraries.
Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st Printing edition (January 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684868164
• ISBN-13: 978-0684868165
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning book about race, silence, and storytelling, January 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Hardcover)

Laura Wexler's "Fire in a Canebrake" in quite simply the best book, hands-down (fiction or non-fiction) that I've read in a decade. It's a moving, thoroughly researched, brave, and gorgeously written book that, although seemily focused on post-war rural Georgia, takes us into the heart of *today's* American South, where the secrets of the bloody past lie still and hidden in the hearts of living blacks and whites alike. Wexler's account of the lynching of four men and women in the late 40's and the aftermath of that lynching brings to light new and unilluminated facts: that a white so-called witness to the lynching couldn't have seen it at all, that the good people of Monroe, Georgia know a whole lot more than they dare say, and that even the FBI, try as they might to solve the case on a President's orders, commited in their inquiry a fatal and irrevocable sin of omission. A daring, startling piece of research; line-to-line, a stunningly written sequence of entirely footnoted scenes. Here is a new, unafraid voice, Laura Welxer's, and her book is a loud and brave addition to our current literature and knowledge about the way that race keeps us all, in the end, far too quiet.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Justice, No Peace....., April 23, 2003

By 

Phyllis Rhodes (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Hardcover)

The term, "Fire in a Canebrake", is a phrase that Walton County, Georgia residents used to describe the sounds of the fatal gunshots that commenced the last mass lynching in America; it is also the title of Laura Wexler's historical account of the Moore's Ford lynching where four blacks were murdered in late July 1946. The novel painstakingly details the "who, what, when, where and why" of the horrific crime and is supported by interviews, FBI reports, and other detailed documentation.

Wexler takes us back to the beginning when a black man, Roger Malcolm, stabs a white man, Barnett Hester, for allegedly having an affair with his common law wife, Dorothy. As Barnett lingers near death, Roger sits in jail counting his days left on earth. Eleven days later when Barnett recovers, Roger is then set free when his bail is posted by Loy Harrison, a wealthy landowner and landlord to George Dorsey (Dorothy's older brother) and his common law wife, Mae Murray. It is returning home from the jail that Roger, Dorothy, George, and Mae are dragged from Loy's car by an angry mob of white men and are murdered in cold blood. Loy claims he did not and could not recognize any of the attackers which was why his life was spared on that fateful day....and so the lying begins and never seems to end.

For years, the NAACP, FBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and local law enforcement conduct their investigations, interrogations, and examinations only to arrive at no convictions. It is only in 1991, when an "eyewitness" steps forward to tell his story that there appears to be a slither of hope for justice. However, hope fades as holes and contradictions run rampant in his testimony as well; and unfortunately by the early 1990's all of the suspected perpetrators and potential corroborating witnesses are deceased. It appears that the leads had literally died out and one wonders if justice will ever be served.

The author does an excellent job of "peeling back the layers" to set the stage for the story and expertly blends in the national and state political agendas that influenced the course of events surrounding the lynching. By doing so, the reader understands the history of the rural Georgian townships where the story plays out, the role of the key witnesses including their family and criminal backgrounds, public displays of bigotry and drunkenness. She also shares the political tactics of the day used to deny blacks of their Civil Rights and protection under Federal law, numerous contradictions in the witness's statements/alibis/affidavits, and lack of follow-up and missed opportunities by law officials. The handling of the case by the investigators from beginning to end is totally unbelievable by today's standards, but what is moreso shocking is the blatant racism, hatred, and wantonness of the townsfolk toward an atrocity such as this.

This reader ran a myriad of emotions while reading the novel -- first, frustration in that no perpetrators were ever brought to justice and nor was anyone ever held accountable for these heinous crimes -- a fact that is unfortunately recurrent in so many lynching cases. Secondly, anger and sadness when reading about the intimidation and threats against local blacks as well as the breakdown and separation of the victim's families in the aftermath of the lynching. The murders only exacerbated their wretched existence as poor, undereducated sharecroppers. The author's skill in conveying their daily living conditions and lifestyle using census statistics and first hand accounts was outstanding and heartbreaking.

This book is a page-turner! Although Oprah, Dateline, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have covered this story, Wexler adds a twist: her words breathe life into the pages and add color to the black and white photos in the book; she presents the evidence in such a way to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Hats off to Ms. Wexler for her perseverance and dedication to finding truth. Well done!

Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moore's Ford Lynching: The Klan Connection, January 10, 2003

By 

Samuel Hardman (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America (Hardcover)

Laura Wexler's "Fire in a Canebrake" is a highly important work. Carefully researched and masterfully written, it will undoubtedly remain the definitive work on the Moore's Ford lynching for years to come. Wexler's vivid account has all the elements of a great novel. But, alas, this is the true story of four African-American lynching victims, shot dead in the prime of life by a mob of mad men on the Walton County bank of the Apalachee River about nine miles from the town of Monroe, Georgia, during the afternoon of 25 July 1946. Wexler never allows her reader to forget them. After more than fifty years, a veil of lies yet covered the facts of the Moore's Ford lynching and it was yet stuck fast to the face of evil. Those who knew the truth about the lynching would never tell. Nevertheless, Wexler tenaciously picked away the rotting veil of lies. Beneath it, one can now see a mourning veil stained with tears. Wexler did not find a direct link between the Ku Klux Klan and the Moore's Ford lynching; however, FBI documents confirm that Loy Harrison and his lawyer, James Willie Arnold, were working together to impede the FBI's investigation of the Moore's Ford lynching. Both men, Loy Harrison and James Willie Arnold, were in fact active members of the Ku Klux Klan, Klavern No.5 of Athens and Bogart, Georgia, where James Willie Arnold held the high Klan office of Grand Titan. Arnold was a large land owner in Oconee County, as was Loy Harrison, and he lived quite near the Moore's Ford community. As to the important question of the Klan being active in Walton and Oconee counties at the time of the lynching, Stetson Kennedy, alas, not mentioned by Wexler, was present at a meeting of Klavern No.1, 198 1/2 Whitehall Street, Atlanta, Georgia, when the Imperial Wizard reminded those present that it was "the Klan's No.1 political job" to elect Eugene Talmadge Governor of Georgia. The Imperial Wizard then reported "that our goal of an active Klavern in each of Georgia's 159 counties, to ensure a Talmadge victory at the polls, has already been realized!" Hence, there were indeed active Klaverns in Walton and Oconee counties at the time of the Moore's Ford lynching. According to Klan protocol, it would appear highly unlikely that Loy Harrison, or any other member of the Klan, could have been present at the lynching without the approval of Dr. Samuel Green, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Wexler does not forsee any justice in the Moore's Ford lynching case; however, there are different forms and degrees of justice in such cases and, perhaps, the first step on the long road to final justice in this case is her own excellent work. Alas, the children of those who were present and took part in the Moore's Ford lynching must learn to live with the awful facts, just as Roger Malcolm's son, the Rev. Roger Malcolm Hayes, has had to do. And there is Divine Justice: the hateful men who murdered Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Dorsey in cold blood--indeed, all who hate--will never see The Beautiful City of God, which is indeed The Beautiful City of LOVE. Finally, Georgia and Walton County ought to consider the children of the Moore's Ford victims in the same light as the state of Florida did in the Rosewood lynching case. Laura Wexler's "Fire in a Canebrake" is a powerful work. This is not the last we shall hear of Laura Wexler, nor is this the last we shall hear of the Moore's Ford lynching.