On the evening of July 12, 1979, Harold McIver, a 27-year-old African American man, was working as manager at a Taco Bell in Doraville, Georgia when a rifle shot fired from about 150 yards away passed through a restaurant window and fatally wounded him. The shooter was identified as Joseph Paul Franklin, who targeted Black people and interracial couples; Franklin later confessed to McIver’s murder, saying he was angry at seeing McIver in close contact with a white woman.

Franklin was already a suspect in a string of racially motivated killings across the country and was serving multiple life sentences for other murders at the time of his confession. He was not formally tried or sentenced specifically for McIver’s killing. The broader spree included multiple murders, bombings, and bank robberies; Franklin was executed on November 20, 2013, for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon.

Does anyone have memories of that Doraville Taco Bell, or information about Harold McIver’s life that could help preserve his story?