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Lynching of Robert Mallard

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Robert Childs "Big Duck" Mallard (1910 or 1911 – November 20, 1948) was an African American traveling casket salesman and landowner, who was shot and lynched by a group of about 20 members of the Ku Klux Klan in Lyons, Toombs County, Georgia. The people charged with his murder were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Robert Mallard
Born1910 or 1911
DiedNovember 20, 1948 (37 years old)
Lyons, Georgia, U.S.
Cause of deathPistol shot to the chest
Lynching
NationalityAmerican
Other namesBig Duck
Duck
Occupations
  • Traveling casket salesman
  • landowner
Known forLynching victim
SpouseAmy James Mallard
Children1

Biography

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Prior life

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Robert Childs Mallard[1] was born c. 1911.[2] He was a traveling casket salesman[3] working for the Standard Products Company. Mallard lived on a 35-acre farm he gained from his wife, Amy James Mallard's, white stepfather-in-law[4] on the banks of the Altamaha River with Amy and their 2-year-old son, John. Amy worked as an elementary school teacher.[5][6]

Death

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On the night of November 20, 1948, 2 weeks after he voted in the 1948 Georgia gubernatorial special election, Mallard and Amy were driving home from a fundraiser at an elementary school with John and two of Amy's cousin's: Angelina Carter, 13 years old, and William "Tim" Carter, 18 years old, in Lyons, Toombs County, Georgia. Mallard was driving in a new Frazer.[7] The car was stopped by a group of about 20 members of the Ku Klux Klan wearing all-white robes. Mallard stopped the car in front of the Providence Baptist Church,[8] and the group shot the vehicle with pistols, which killed Mallard.[9][10] When sheriff R. E. Gray arrived to the scene, they searched Amy's pocketbook and the vehicle.[11][8]

Aftermath

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After the lynching, Amy, her son, Angelina, and William fled for Savannah, Georgia, and moved back and forth between there and Jacksonville, Florida. Robert's brother, Benjamin F. Mallard, who lived in California, informed Theodore L. Redding, the president of the NAACP's Jacksonville branch about the killing. Redding told the NAACP president, Walter White, who spread the information.[12]

Former Georgia governor Herman Talmadge did not order an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Instead, Talmadge sent two agents to Mallard's funeral on November 27, 1948. There, they arrested Amy and charged her for the murder.[13][14]

After the news became nationwide, Joseph Goldwasser, a Jewish businessman from Cleveland, Ohio,[15] began an unofficial investigation. His investigation led police to five people. They surrendered, and two of the men were indicted for the murder; Ku Klux Klan members William L. "Spud" Howell, and Roderick Clifton.[16] After the surrenders, fires broke out in the local black business area.[17][18][19]

Trial

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The trial for the murder of Mallard began in the Toombs County Courthouse on January 11, 1949.[20][21] At the beginning of the trial, Toombs County solicitor William L. Lanier presented Amy as his only piece of evidence. Amy argued that she recognized Howell and Clifton's car during the event.[22] Amy then fell from her chair to the floor and began sobbing. Howell and Clifton's lawyer, Thomas Ross Sharpe, argued that Amy was armed at the time of the killing. He also used character evidence in two ways: first, a subpoena to Joseph Golwasser to testify, and sending two jurors to testify, a move that " defied the notions of jurisprudence".[23] After 25 minutes of deliberation, Howell was acquitted by an all-white jury, and the charges against Clifton, who was severed from the trial, were subsequently dropped in a case of Nolle prosequi.[24][25][8]

Legacy

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After the trial, Amy took her two children, Doris Byron and John Mallard, went to Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. with members of the NAACP to protest the decision.[26] On July 4, 1949, Mallard's home in Lyons was allegedly burnt down by Ku Klux Klan members.[8]

Mallard's death led to the creation of the Atlanta Negro Voters League.[27]

Mallard was also included in the We Charge Genocide petition.[6] Amy and Doris were both signers.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Killing of Robert Childs Mallard in Georgia in 1948 | The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive". crrjarchive.org. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  2. ^ "CERTIFICATE OF DEATH GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH". Archived from the original on 2024-02-05. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  3. ^ Bowman, Joseph R. (January 1949). "WHAT'S WRONG WITH JUSTICE". Tiger’s Roar. Archived from the original on 2024-01-16. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  4. ^ Cohen, Hon William S.; LLC, Anne & Emmett (2009-06-16). Race and Reconciliation in America. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-7391-3552-5. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
  5. ^ Thomas, Damion L. (2012-09-30). Globetrotting: African American Athletes and Cold War Politics. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09429-3.
  6. ^ a b Congress (U.S.), Civil Rights (1952). We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People. International Publishers.
  7. ^ "Robert Mallard – The Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project". Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  8. ^ a b c d Warren, John (8 November 2011). "DUCK: A Legal History of Robert Mallard's Murder". Northeastern University School of Law Review: 14. Archived from the original on 16 January 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  9. ^ "We Charge Genocide - The 1951 Black Lives Matter Campaign". depts.washington.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-02-18. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  10. ^ Congress (U.S.), Civil Rights (1952). We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People. International Publishers. p. 71. Archived from the original on 2022-11-14. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  11. ^ Newton, Michael (2009-02-04). The FBI and the KKK: A Critical History. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4072-6.
  12. ^ "GEORGIA: Just Another Killing". Time. 1948-12-06. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 2023-06-16. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  13. ^ "GEORGIA: Justice In Toombs County". Time. 1949-01-24. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 2023-06-14. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  14. ^ Ward, Jason Morgan (2011). Defending White Democracy: The Making of a Segregationist Movement and the Remaking of Racial Politics, 1936-1965. Univ of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3513-5.
  15. ^ "The Mallard Murder Case". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  16. ^ "News article from Pittsburgh Courier regarding murder of Robert Mallard : January 8, 1949 | The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive". www.crrjarchive.org. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  17. ^ Glass, Richard C. (December 1, 1948). "Ga. Waiting for Warrants in Slaying". Schenectady Gazette. p. 2. Archived from the original on June 14, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  18. ^ "5 Georgia Men Held In Ambush Slaying". The New York Times. Associated Press. 1948-12-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-06-16. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  19. ^ "2 WHITES INDICTED IN GEORGIA KILLING; Early Trial slate in Ambush of Negro -- McGill, Editor, Closeted With Jurors". The New York Times. 1948-12-11. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  20. ^ "The Mallard Murder Case". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  21. ^ Judiciary, United States Congress House Committee on the (1949). Hearings.
  22. ^ Times, John Pophamspecial To the New York (1949-01-12). "Georgians Freed in Negro's Killing; Two on Jury Testify for the Defense; Georgians Freed in Negro's Killing; Two on Jury Testify for the Defense". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-28.
  23. ^ Anderson, Carol Elaine (2003-04-21). Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53158-0. Archived from the original on 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2023-12-25.
  24. ^ Novotny, Patrick (2007). This Georgia Rising: Education, Civil Rights, and the Politics of Change in Georgia in the 1940s. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-88146-088-9. Archived from the original on 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
  25. ^ Newton, Michael (2016-02-11). Unsolved Civil Rights Murder Cases, 1934-1970. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2362-7. Archived from the original on 2024-03-22. Retrieved 2023-06-15.
  26. ^ "'Let Them Take My Picture' Sobs Widow" (PDF). Baltimore Afro-American. December 18, 1948. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 14, 2023. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  27. ^ "Atlanta Negro Voters League". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  28. ^ "UN Asked To Act Against Genocide In United States". Baltimore Afro-American. Archived from the original on 2021-09-05. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
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