21 July 2015

[TPC] - The Moore's Ford Bridge Lynchings: Update - 21 July 2015

The Piedmont Chronicles

~ est. 2010 ~




Some years back, on this website, I started up a page to address the killings that happened back in July of 1946 of four black people outside of Monroe, GA in an event that is widely believed to be the last major lynching in American history:

Over 65 years ago, two black couples, George and Mae Dorsey & Roger and Dorothy Malcolm, were ambushed, shot, and killed right near Moore's Ford bridge in Walton County right at the Oconee Co. line. It is believed to have been the last mass lynching in American history. To this day the case remains unsolved and no one has been charged with this horrendous crime. A couple of years ago, the FBI and GBI reopened the case with what they considered to be new evidence; however, that was over three years ago and nothing has happened. With each passing day, it seems more and more unlikely that this mystery will be solved and that Justice will be served.

Unbeknownst to me, some recent developments have occurred with this story earlier this year. It was first reported in The Guardian, back in February of 2015, that the FBI had interviewed Charlie Peppers, an elderly man of 88 years and also Walton Co. resident,  to ascertain if he had anything to do with the killings or knew any information that could help solve this horrid crime. Apparently, Peppers vehemently denied any involvement or knowledge of the situation. By all accounts, this interview by the FBI was a direct result of an accusation of the nephew of Mr. Peppers, Wayne Watson, who said, on video back in 2013, that his uncle was involved with this crime.

As of this time there does not appear to be any other news and neither the GBI, US Justice Dept, or the FBI is willing to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Here are some other write-ups of this recent information:


One has to wonder if anything will come of this. After all, this recent development with Mr. Peppers is at least 5 months old. Naturally, the gears of Justice are a slow moving thing; however, there has always been a culture and a conspiracy of "silence" with this event going all the way back to 1946. We'll see...





15 July 2015

This Day in Georgia History: July 15th

GeorgiaInfo is a marvelous resource for the Georgia history buff. With tons of information, be prepared to spend a good bit of time on this site.

One of my favorite features of this page is "This Day in Georgia History."

Here's a few for today, July 15th:

Sherman crossing the Chattahoochee River (1864)


Bobby Jones wins his first major title (1923) 


James Ogelthorpe gives chase to the Spanish (1742) 


On the main page here at the Chronicles, we also have a link to another similar site hosted by the The Georgia Historical Society and Georgia Public Broadcasting entitled, "Today in Georgia History." Personally, I like the GeorgiaInfo one better.

Good stuff.

Things have been kind of light lately - vacation and busy with life, but we've got some stuff coming down the pike: another write-up from contributing writer Ellis Millsaps and some local C-town news and politics. So stay tuned...







03 July 2015

Happy Independence Day from the Piedmont Chronicles



“What is my Remedy against a Robber, that so broke into my House? Appeal to the Law for Justice. But perhaps Justice is denied, or I am crippled and cannot stir, robbed and have not the means to do it. If God has taken away all means of seeking remedy, there is nothing left but patience. But my Son, when able, may seek the Relief of the Law, which I am denied: He or his Son may renew his Appeal, till he recover his Right. But the Conquered, or their Children, have no Court, no Arbitrator on Earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as Jephtha did, to Heaven, and repeat their Appeal, till they have recovered the native Right of their Ancestors, which was to have such a Legislative over them, as the Majority should approve, and freely acquiesce in."
Those are the words of John Locke, the father of Classical Liberalism, the political philosophy in which I most identify. This flag, my favorite of the Revolutionary period, which by all accounts was based on these immortal words, was the flag of the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War.
Happy Independence Day! Long Live the Republic!








IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

01 July 2015

[TPC] - A Report on the Special Called Meeting of the Newton Co. BOC Regarding the Landfill - 1 July 2015

The Piedmont Chronicles

~ est. 2010 ~



[State of Georgia]

[Newton County]

In a 2-1 vote (Douglas and Sims voting for; Henderson against), the Newton Co. BOC voted against the original Green Hill proposal, or also any other future Green Hill P3 proposal Wednesday night at the Historic Courthouse on the Covington Square.

Citing the tactics and questionable dealings of the aforementioned Green Hill company, and how they had not only divided a county, community, and individual families, it was left in no uncertain terms by both commissioners who voted for this motion that Newton County was done with Green Hill P3.

Impassioned speeches were given by many citizens before the vote was taken with an overwhelming majority against any deal with Green Hill which seemed to match the mood of the several dozen people who were in attendance. 


A true exercise in American Democracy, it was a great meeting to attend and a joy to watch. 

Much work to be done and many moving parts to address in the near future as I was forwarded an action alert as I sat in the meeting which stated that the East Georgia Land & Development Company "will move forward with its plan to construct a private landfill and sue Newton County for damages related to a 17-year legal battle, according to the company's head, Jim Baker."

DEVELOPING...

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