The Early County Massacre has been known as the “Grandison Goolsby War” for over a century, focusing on the events of December 30, 1915, when forty-six-year-old Grandison used gunfire to defend himself from a lynching mob. Lesser known is that the incident started two days earlier when Grandison’s son was attacked on his way to a wedding and that it all led to the Supreme Court of Georgia sending that same son to death row five years later. Author Orice Jenkins tells the full story of Ulysses Goolsby and the massacre more than one hundred years later, highlighting the relationships between the victims and survivors and emphasizing the noble accomplishments and sacrifices of Grandison and Mary Goolsby.

Orice Jenkins is a recording artist, genealogist, educator, and author, born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. He began researching his family history upon discovering that Whitney Houston’s grandparents were from his grandmother’s hometown of Blakely, Georgia. Since then, he has traced his ancestry back to 1745 in Central Virginia, uncovering the stories of several formerly enslaved Americans.

Orice is a member of the Sons and Daughters of the U.S. Middle Passage and the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. He has presented his findings at The College of William & Mary, Yale University, FamilySearch’s RootsTech Conference, and the International African American Museum’s Center for Family History. His research has been featured in The Washington Post, National Parks Magazine, PBS’ Finding Your Roots, and on the National Park Service website.
Orice is the author of The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. The State of Georgia, a book chronicling the family of Grandison Goolsby, a prominent farmer who was extrajudicially lynched in Early County, Georgia in 1915. Orice also publishes a blog called Chesta’s Children, and serves as the Executive Director of a youth music program in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

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