Location: Chickasaw County, Mississippi
Age: 48
Year: 1949
Malcolm Wright, 48, was a farmer who was killed by James Moore, Eunice Gore, and James “Red” Kellum in Chickasaw County, Mississippi.
The men accused Wright of not moving his wagon fast enough to let them pass along the road.
Subsequently, they beat Wright to death with a tire iron.
Wright’s wife and children were in the wagon, traveling with him into town on a Saturday, when he was murdered.
The three men were charged with Wright’s murder, but one of the men was acquitted at trial. There appears to have been no legal repercussions for the other two assailants.
For more information, search CRRJ’s archive.
Read more about Wright’s death on the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive
About the Archive
The Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive houses case files and documents for more than 1,000 cases of racial homicides in the Jim Crow South. Co-founded by Melissa Nobles, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Margaret Burnham, CRRJ director and professor of law at Northeastern, these uncovered stories highlight how violence affected lives, defined legal rights and shaped politics between 1930 and 1954.
Documents relating to Wright's death
For newspaper reports, advocacy group documents and more, search our archive.
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