Oconee County, GA Politics

Civil rights activists sponsoring Saturday’s 10th annual reenactment of Georgia’s last known mass lynching expect a large crowd from across the state, but hope they won’t have to keep reliving the bitter history much longer. The reenactments of the 1946 killing of two black couples on the Moore’s Ford Bridge in Monroe, Ga., were designed to rattle the consciences of some of the 200 or so witnesses in hopes they would come forward and lead investigators to the perpetrators who have escaped prosecution all these years. Last year, one man did come forward to relay tales he had heard as a boy of his family members recounting atrocities they participated in against blacks. The event organizers have written the chairmen of the congressional judiciary committees to ask for hearings to pressure federal investigators to step up their actives. One organizer, state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, speculates that part of the ...

Yet another important event worth witnessing to remember another horrific death from the last century Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. From: richrusk@bellsouth.net To: ; Subject: please attend April 30 ADL Leo Frank World Premiere Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:08:26 -0400   The People v Leo Frank Premiers April 30 Dear Moore's Ford friends,    Please attend this historic movie screening, The People v Leo Frank, on April 30 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. As we - the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee - have been named a partnering organiztion to help promote the premier, please email and tell your friends to attend this event. Also contact list servs, media persons, "all communication vehicles" with whom you are in contact.    If you plan to go (contact www.adl.org/leofrank  for tickets) , please RSVP us if you wish to carpool from the Clarke/Oconee/Walton county area. One thousand persons are expected.     Rich Rusk, secre...

WSB Television led off their 5:00 pm newscast this evening with news of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation digging up the yard of a home in Walton County near the Gratis community. Apparently a home was searched, a bomb was found and detonated, and forensic recovery teams set up tents to sift through potential evidence. I heartily commend the GBI for their efforts in trying to solve the Moore's Ford Bridge lynchings of two African-American couples 62 years ago. This is just the most recent in a string of racially divisive news events in the past week in Northeast Georgia including a noose displayed from a business in Oglethorpe. I do not equate the SCV or most people bearing a St. Andrews cross with terrorist groups but instead like the DAR a semi-historic heritage group.

Moore's Ford has forever stained the Walton-Oconee county border with the indelible stain of racism. Rich Rusk and friends invite you to their Christmas festivities December 1. The following video re-enactment they had nothing to do with in terms of staging, but it gives you a good idea of why racial reconciliation is so important. Keep in mind the following is an invitation from Rich and the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee and goes on here in Watkinsville Dear Moores Ford friends and invited guests, Please attend our 11th Annual Moores Ford Christmas Party. See invitation below. For a better copy and our full, two page invitation, please open the attachment. We have had yet another good year and it is time to celebrate. Some very special guests have been invited to receive Moores Ford Community Service Awards, including: Amrey & Debra Harden, GABEO President Tyrone Brooks, organizers from the Maceo Snipes memorial effort – John Cole Vodicka, Prison & Jail Proj...