Murder of Maceo Snipes

On July 18, 1946, Maceo Snipes, a United States Army veteran, was fatally shot in the back just hours after casting his vote in the Georgia Democratic primary.[1][2] Snipes was the first African American to vote in a Democratic primary in Taylor County, Georgia. During this time, the white supremacist terrorist group KKK was in its prime. KKK members were responsible for multiple lynchings of black people who decided to vote following Snipes' murder. For example, two black couples were lynched five days later.[3] Prior to the election, the KKK had made threats to lynch any black person who dared cast a vote. Snipes and his mother were both sharecroppers on Homer Chapman's land in Butler, Georgia. The day after Snipes cast his vote, four white men pulled up to the land Chapman rented to Snipes' family. All four were suspected KKK members: two were later identified as Edward Williamson and Lynwood Harvey, both WWII veterans.[4]

Having pulled up outside Snipes' grandfather's house, the four white men asked Snipes' mother to call him outside. They then confronted him, and it ended with Williamson shooting Snipes in the back. After the men left, Snipes and his mother walked to Chapman's house. Chapman helped them walk 3 miles to the hospital in Butler. The hospital staff did not treat Snipes until six hours later. By then, he needed a blood transfusion. The staff claimed that they did not have any "black blood". Two days later, Snipes died in the hospital from his injuries. Williamson was an initial suspect in the investigation. In front of a coroner's jury, he claimed that Maceo owed him a $10 debt. Supposedly, Williamson and Harvey went to Snipes to confront him on his debt. Williamson said that Snipes had pulled out a knife, so he shot Snipes twice in the back, claiming self-defense. Coroner J.D. Cooke and a jury declared Williamson's actions as justified. Williamson was exonerated on his charges on July 29, 1946.[5]

The Butler funeral director and Snipes' uncle buried Snipe at an unmarked grave in the Butler cemetery. It is not known exactly where Snipes' body is buried. He did not receive a proper empty casket burial until 2007. Snipes' story, along with the murder of the two black couples, received coverage in the newspapers, such as the Atlanta Constitution. While studying at Morehouse, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter in response to the newspaper's remarks on the killings of Snipes and the two black couples.[6]