Sorry, no cheery St. Patrick’s Day column to celebrate the holiday at the end of this week. Instead, Friday is also the 137th anniversary of anything but a cheery holiday: One of most shocking mass murders in American history, and one that remains unsolved. (Perhaps some enterprising podcaster will tackle this mystery.)
Let’s travel back to Carroll County, Mississippi, in January 1886, when trouble began. Two brothers, Ed and Charley Brown, half-Black and half-American Indian, were delivering molasses to a local saloon in Carrollton, the county seat. They bumped into and spilled molasses upon the clothing of Robert Moore, a White man from a neighboring community. Though the matter was quickly resolved, it did not end there. A month later, Moore told his friend James Monroe Liddell, a Carrollton attorney and a newspaper editor, about the incident. Liddell decided to get involved.
On February 12, he confronted the Browns and accused them of deliberately spilling the molasses on Moore. A verbal dispute erupted, and when Liddell attempted to assault Ed Brown, onlookers intervened and prevented the argument from escalating to a full-scale fight. Liddell then walked down the street to a hotel for dinner. Told by a friend that the Browns were making vulgar comments about him, Liddell left his meal to confront the brothers once again. This time there was shooting and both Liddell and the Browns injured.
