Mount Perry Missionary Baptist Church is a historic Black congregation, likely established by freedmen after the Civil War. I haven’t been able to locate a specific date, but resource surveys indicate the present church was built in the 1890s. The gable front structure is six bays deep and features a single steeple. It is located near the northern apex of Morgan County, just west of the Apalachee River and the Oconee County line. The idyllic churchyard and cemetery are well-maintained.
Mount Perry gained national significance as the site of the 28 July 1946 funeral and memorial services for victims of the infamous Moore’s Ford lynching. On 25 July 1946, a white mob murdered two young Black couples at the Moore’s Ford Bridge on the Apalachee River: George and Mae Murray Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom. George Dorsey was a World War II veteran, who had recently returned home from service. His sister, Dorothy Malcom, was seven months pregnant at the time. Predictably, justice was never served in this case and remains officially unsolved.
