1946

In 1946, a documented wave of violence targets Black veterans returning from WWII, particularly in the South. Sergeant John C. Jones is lynched in Minden, Louisiana. Private First Class Authur McDuffie is killed in uniform in Georgia. Veteran Sergeant Macio Snipes is murdered after voting. Veterans are attacked for wearing uniforms, asserting rights, or refusing to show deference. The NAACP documents at least 56 Black men and women lynched in 1946, six of them veterans. The violence reflects white terror at the prospect of Black soldiers demanding the democracy they fought for.

In 1946, a documented wave of violence targets Black veterans returning from WWII, particularly in the South. Sergeant John C. Jones is lynched in Minden, Louisiana. Veteran Sergeant Maceo Snipes is murdered after voting. Veterans are attacked for wearing uniforms, asserting rights, or refusing to show deference. The NAACP documents at least 56 Black men and women lynched in 1946, six of them veterans. The violence reflects white terror at the prospect of Black soldiers demanding the democracy they fought for.

On February 12, 1946, Sergeant Isaac Woodard, still in his Army uniform hours after his honorable discharge, is dragged from a Greyhound bus in Batesburg, South Carolina by Police Chief Lynwood Shull after a dispute. Shull beats Woodard with a nightstick, gouging his eyes. Woodard is left blind for life. He is charged with disorderly conduct. Shull is acquitted by an all-white jury in 1946. The case outrages President Truman and directly influences Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military.

President Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practice Committee, created 1941 to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors, is defunded by Congress in 1946 after Southern Democrats block its renewal. Black workers are systematically excluded from high-wage manufacturing, construction, and professional jobs through union segregation (AFL building trades maintain segregated locals), employer discrimination, and federal contractor non-enforcement. The median Black family income is 51 percent of white family income in 1947, reflecting structural exclusion from postwar prosperity.

President Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practice Committee, created 1941 to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors, is defunded by Congress in 1946 after Southern Democrats block its renewal. Black workers are systematically excluded from high-wage manufacturing, construction, and professional jobs through union segregation, employer discrimination, and federal contractor non-enforcement. The median Black family income is 51 percent of white family income in 1947, reflecting structural exclusion from postwar prosperity.

President Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practice Committee, created 1941 to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors, is defunded by Congress in 1946 after Southern Democrats block its renewal. Black workers are systematically excluded from high-wage manufacturing, construction, and professional jobs. The median Black family income is 51 percent of white family income in 1947, reflecting structural exclusion from postwar prosperity.

In Columbia, Tennessee, a confrontation between Navy veteran James Stephenson and a white radio repairman escalates into a two-day state police rampage through the Black business district. State police and highway patrolmen invade Mink Slide, the Black commercial district, smashing property and shooting two Black men. 28 Black men are arrested; two are shot in jail by police who claim they attempted escape. The NAACP mounts a major defense and Thurgood Marshall is nearly lynched when his car is stopped by a mob on the way home.

At Moore's Ford Bridge in Walton County, Georgia, a white mob of 15-20 men drags two Black couples — George and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom — from a car and executes them with a volley of gunfire. Mae Dorsey and Dorothy Malcom are pregnant. One assailant reportedly calls Dorothy by name, indicating the killers are known community members. An FBI investigation names 15-20 suspects but a grand jury refuses to indict anyone. The case remains officially unsolved.

At Moore's Ford Bridge in Walton County, Georgia, a white mob of 15-20 men drags two Black couples — George and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom — from a car and executes them with a volley of gunfire. Mae Dorsey and Dorothy Malcom are pregnant. One assailant reportedly calls Dorothy by name, indicating the killers are known community members. An FBI investigation names 15-20 suspects but a grand jury refuses to indict anyone. The case remains officially unsolved.

After successfully defending most Columbia, TN riot defendants, Thurgood Marshall's car is stopped multiple times by police and a white mob on a rural Tennessee road at night. Companions believe they are about to be lynched. Marshall is removed from one car while police search for whiskey (to frame him for drunk driving) and his companions rush him away before the mob closes in. The incident illustrates how even prominent civil rights attorneys faced existential danger in the South.

On June 3, 1946, the Supreme Court rules in Morgan v. Virginia that Virginia cannot enforce bus segregation on interstate routes. Irene Morgan, who refused to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus in 1944, is vindicated. The decision is largely ignored by bus companies and Southern states. CORE tests compliance through the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation — a forerunner of the 1961 Freedom Rides — in which riders including Bayard Rustin are arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to a chain gang.

On June 3, 1946, the Supreme Court rules in Morgan v. Virginia that Virginia cannot enforce bus segregation on interstate routes. Irene Morgan, who refused to give up her seat on a Greyhound bus in 1944, is vindicated. The decision is largely ignored by bus companies and Southern states. CORE tests compliance through the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation — a forerunner of the 1961 Freedom Rides — in which riders including Bayard Rustin are arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to a chain gang.

Maceo Snipes of Taylor County, Georgia is the only Black person to vote in the July 1946 Democratic primary. The following day, four white men shoot him on his porch. He dies two days later. A note left at a local Black church reads: 'The first Negro to vote will be the last.' No one is prosecuted. His murder illustrates the lethal consequences of attempting to exercise voting rights in the post-WWII South.

On August 8, 1946, Private First Class John C. Jones, a 26-year-old Black veteran who had just returned from WWII service, is abducted from his home in Minden, Louisiana by a white mob. His arms are cut off with a meat cleaver and he is beaten to death. A white veteran who had sought Jones's death is identified as organizing the attack. No state charges are brought. FBI investigation leads to a federal civil rights indictment but an all-white jury acquits. Jones's murder is part of the 1946 wave of anti-veteran racial terror.

On August 8, 1946, Private First Class John C. Jones, a 26-year-old Black veteran who had just returned from WWII service, is abducted from his home in Minden, Louisiana by a white mob. His arms are cut off with a meat cleaver and he is beaten to death. A white veteran who had sought Jones's death is identified as organizing the attack. No state charges are brought. FBI investigation leads to a federal civil rights indictment but an all-white jury acquits. Jones's murder is part of the 1946 wave of anti-veteran racial terror.

A Black veteran is beaten and blinded by police, galvanizing federal civil-rights attention.

The Supreme Court bars segregation on interstate buses.