July 25th is a very significant date in the history of the struggle for black equality in this nation. I will talk today of two events that occurred in the 1940s', five years apart. One was the birth of a young baby boy who would only live 14 years but he would symbolize, motivate, encourage, created a profound determination to end the cruelty of Jim Crow justice in this nation. The young boy who never became a man, Emmitt Till, was born on July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents Louis Till, who was hung by his neck until he was dead in 1944 for crimes he was accused of in Italy during World Two. His mother Mamie Till Bradley was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago during the great migration of blacks from southern states immersed in racist bigotry.
The second event was one of the cruelest murders ever to be perpetrated by white racists in the history of this nation. On July 25, 1946, four years after the birth of Emmitt Till, four blacks individuals. two black married couples were savagely murdered by a white mob of hate-filled racists. George W. and Mae Murray Dorsey and Roger and Dorothy Malcom were victims of this insane act of lynch mob justice. In the state of Georgia, in Walton County on a road near the Moore's Ford Bridge, these black citizens of this nation were viciously shot and murdered. To make the crime even more irreprehensible and vicious Dorothy Malcom was seven months pregnant with a child. According to a witness to this act of viciousness. Each victim was tied to a tree and shot at point black range with over 60 shot fired in all by this mob of white maniacs. It is also said that Dorothy Malcom's fetus was cut from her womb. Tell me now what creates an atmosphere for this type of vile race-hatred?
I mean, really? Not one white participant in this heinous was ever prosecuted in any courtroom, federal or state, for these murders as well the violation of these 4 victims federal civil rights. Although, these murders outraged many in this nation. That outrage was not enough to gain congressional support for anti-lynching legislation that was stalled by southern congressional leaders. The crime which came to known as the Moore's Ford Lynching isn't taught in the history books of our nation. It is hidden from view as are many other acts of lynchings are. This nation shields itself from these acts as it hiding them away somehow will make them disappear.
Emmitt Till's birth and the lynching at Moore's Ford Bridge have come to symbolize the essence of the battle for civil rights and equality for black American citizens. While the name of Emmitt Til, born on July 25, 1941, has become synonymous to the struggle for civil rights. The names of George W. Dorsey, Mae Murray Dorsey, Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, and an unnamed baby murdered on July 25, 1946, are not known to the vast black populace of our community. All of these individuals were not allowed to live out the fullness of their lives. The reason simply was being born with skins not white but black. Today, I ask that we spend just a few moments in momentary silence remembering the damaged souls of these our sisters and brothers who in their sacrifice motivated a movement of change. Even though it wasn't ever their attempt to do. They simply wanted to live but some white bigots determined another fate for each of them.