Letter from Gladys Robinson to President Truman
7/31/1946
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Gladys Robinson of Chicago, IL, sent this letter to President Harry Truman with newspaper clippings that "will prove to you the necessity of having an "Anti Lynch Bill" in this country." The clippings describe the murder four Black Americans in Georgia, and the beating and blinding of a Black veteran by South Carolina police.
Please note that these newspaper articles contain depictions of racial violence and murder.
Please note that these newspaper articles contain depictions of racial violence and murder.
Transcript
[handwriting in pencil][handwritten] Robinson
Chicago, Illinois
July 31, 1946
Mr. Harry S. Truman,
President of the United States of America,
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Truman:
Enclosed you will find newspaper clippings which in themselves will prove to you the necessity of having an "Anti Lynch Bill" in this country.
This condition is very aggravating to the Negroes of America.
Won't you please give this matter your immediate attention?
Respectfully submitted,
[signature] Gladys A. Robinson
Gladys A. Robinson
Gladys A. Robinson
6759 South Chicago Avenue
Chicago 37, Illinois.
[newspaper clipping with photograph on which has been typed, "PLEASE NOTE THE SMILE ON THIS PERSON'S FACE", indicating Loy Harrison]
HOW LYNCHING VICTIMS WERE BOUND
Loy Harrison (left), Oconee County (Ga.,) farmer, shows Sheriff J. M. Bond how mob of white men bound hands of two Negro men together before shooting them and their wives to death near Monroe, Ga. Harrison said mob took the four Negroes from his car as he was driving to his farm.
ASSOCIATED PRESS WIREPHOTO.
[newspaper clipping]
Four Negroes Lynched by Georgia Mob
60 Shots Fired into 2 Terrified Men and Wives
[Picture on Back Page. Map on Page 2.]
MONROE, Ga., July 26. - (UP) - Twenty to 30 men led by a 6-foot 3-inch giant wearing a broad-brimmed black hat lynched four terrified Negroes with a 60-shot broadside from rifles, shotguns, and pistols on a lonely swamp road late yesterday.
Many white Georgians were aroused by the massacre, and Maj. W. E. Spence, head of the State Bureau of Identification, characterized it as "the worst thing that ever happened in Georgia."
In point of numbers and in brutality it was the worst lynching in the South in many years.
Witness Describes Lynchers.
J. Loy Harrison, prosperous white farmer, was the only outside witness. He violated the "white man's code" of the Southern rural areas by describing the lynchers to authorities, particularly the huge, lank leader and an undersized youth in soldier's clothes who held a shotgun at his head while the Negroes were cut down.
Two of the victims were women.
Klan Dragon Denies Blame.
Dr. Samuel Green, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, said in Atlanta that "the Klan does not approve or countenance such an action. . . . We have no Klan chapter in the Monroe area. I know that the Klan had nothing to do with these killings although I expect Gov. Ellis Arnall (who has sought to have the Klan's charter revoked) will try to pin it on us - he tries to pin every disgraceful action on us."
A coroner's jury was convened here last night, soon after the lynching. Its verdict was that the Negroes met their deaths at the hands of "unknown persons."
Recognition Proves Fatal.
The lynchers were after Roger Malcolm, farmhand, who was alleged to have stabbed a white employer, Barney Nestor Jr. They killed Malcolm's brother-in-law, George Dorsey, a discharged soldier, apparently for no other reason than that he was with him. They killed the men's wives, Dorothy and May, when one of them called out in evident recognition of one of the lynchers.
Spence pledged a thorough investigation. In Washington, the Department of Justice pledged a federal investigation and E. S. Gordon, sheriff of Walton County, in which the lynching took place, said he was investigating, too.
[illegible] since May 19, 1918, when
[newspaper clipping with picture]
DIXIE WELCOME- BEATING, BLINDNESS
[picture of Isaac Woodard on left with mother on right handing him a China cup and saucer]
Victim of unparalleled Southern brutality, Isaac Woodard, 27-year-old veteran, was beaten and blinded when his eyes were gouged out by South Carolina police only a few hours after he was discharged from Army separation center. Woodard, who survived battle action in New Guinea and Philippines, is shown being cared for by his mother at 1100 Franklin ave., Bronx, N.Y.C. Incident is most tragic sequel to date of story of reception accorded veterans returned from battle for a "democracy" which replays them with vilification, abuse, beating and death.
[newspaper clipping]
[top of first column]
4 Negroes Slain by Georgia Mob
Lynching Is South's Worst in Years [printed arrow to right of text pointing to location map at top of second column]
LYNCH, from Page 1.
six Negroes were lynched by a mob in Brooks County, Ga., had so many Negroes been lynched at one time in the South. One of the six in 1918 was a Negro woman who dared protest the lynching of her husband the day before.
[In New York, Walter White, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, charged that the nomination of Gene Talmadge for governor of Georgia was responsible for the lynching. He said Talmadge was "a man as brazen as Hitler in his racial theories." He also blamed the Ku Klux Klan.
Talmage 'Regrets' It.
[In Cheyenne, Wyo., Talmadge said Friday that "things like that are to be regretted." He would make no further comment.]
[Upon his arrival there Thursday to attend the Frontier Days observance, Talmadge declared in an interview that "nothing can be gained by giving equal rights to someone with an artificial civilization that has been forced upon him only 150 years old. . . . . I think it will be many, many years before we can give the Negro equal rights.']
Just Freed from Jail.
Harrison had just freed Malcolm from jail by posting a $600 bond. He already employed Dorsey and his wife and Malcolm and his wife had been recommended by them as good workers. He loaded the four workers into his car and was en route back to his farm when the lynchers intercepted them.
They were waylaid on the approach of a plank bridge over the Appalachee River which divides Walton and Oconee counties - a remote spot where the road is lined with swamp and undergrowth, 10 miles east of Monroe and 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Leader Seemed Educated.
Harrison said the leader was a man weighing at least 220 pounds. He wore a brown suit and a black hat. He spoke like an educated man, gave crisp commands to his followers, and sounded "like a retired doctor or general."
"I'd know that voice if I heard [paper torn/word missing] again in the dark," Harrison [paper torn/word missing], and "I'd recognize the boy [paper torn/words missing] held the gun on me, too, al-[paper torn/words missing]gh he wouldn't look me in [paper torn/words missing] face."
The lynchers had set their ambush by blocking the road w[paper torn/words missing] automobile. They bound [paper torn/words missing] two Negro men together a[paper torn/words missing] deputies found their torn bodies still tangled in strands of bloody rope.
One of the women had been taking home a piece of frying fat and greasy paper littered the scene.
Every Man Armed.
"All I could do was pull up and stop the car," Harrison said. "Every man of them appeared to be armed either with a rifle, shotgun or pistol. I knew this was trouble-but I never expected anything like what happened.
"Their leader was a tall, tough-looking man. I had never seen him before - I didn't recognize any of them. The leader ignored me and told Dorsey: 'all right, George, get out of the car.'"
The Negroes were crying and pleading for mercy, saying "We ain't done no harm." The two Negro men were taken from the
[top of second column]
[graphic of local map]
LYNCHING SITE
Map locates Monroe, Ga. (A), near which a band of armed white men waylaid a white farmer and four Negroes and killed the Negroes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS WIREPHOTO MAP
-------------------------
car and the women left inside. But Malcolm's wife evidently recognized one of the lynching party and it was a death warrant for her and the other woman.
Wife Cries Out.
As her husband was led away she cried out "Please stop, Mr. ______"
She was interrupted by a command of "halt" from the leader before she could utter the name.
He ordered his men to "go back and get those women," Harrison said.
Cringing and pleading, the four victims were led to a clump of woods rising out of the swamp and lined up against trees. Lining up like a firing squad. The lynchers poured a volley of shots into their victims.
Harrison talked freely despite the attempt the mob's leader had made to intimidate him. After the Negroes had been shot, one of the lynchers pointed at him saying to the leader: "You might get rid of him too."
Leader Glares.
The leader turned around and glared at Harrison.
"Do you know anyone here?" he asked.
"No, sir." Harrison replied. "I don't."
He turned to the youth guarding Harrison.
"You know what to do with him."
The leader walked away with the rest of the mob.
The little fellow with the [paper torn/words missing] gun told me to get back in [paper torn/words missing] and had me turn [paper torn/words missing] son said. "The [paper torn/words missing]
go whenever[paper torn/words missing] Harrison[paper torn/words missing] see the[paper torn/words missing] him be[paper torn/words missing] hea[paper torn/words missing]
This primary source comes from the Collection HST-WHPOMF: White House Public Opinion Mail Files (Truman Administration).
National Archives Identifier: 145807631
Full Citation: Letter from Gladys Robinson to President Truman; 7/31/1946; Civil Rights [3 of 3]; Public Opinion Mail Files, 1945 - 1953; Collection HST-WHPOMF: White House Public Opinion Mail Files (Truman Administration); Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/robinson-truman, March 26, 2025]Rights: Copyright Not Evaluated Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
