In 2019, the Maryland General Assembly enacted, and Governor Larry Hogan signed into law, legislation establishing the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MLTRC) as the first Commission dedicated to investigating racial terror lynchings in the United States. Sponsored by Delegate Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk, House Bill 307 tasks the Commission with researching cases of lynching, holding public hearings in communities where racial terror lynchings took place and developing recommendations for addressing the legacy of lynching that are rooted in restorative justice.

The MLTRC's hearing process will allow members of the public, including the descendants of victims, witnesses, and perpetrators, the opportunity to offer testimony about how these murders have impacted their lives and their communities in addition to allowing them the opportunity to make recommendations for achieving racial healing. The hearings will also provide an opportunity to identify and bring to light possible cases of racial terror lynching that are remembered in families and communities but for which there is little or no documentation.

The June 4th hearing will focus on the tragic lynching of Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old boy who was killed on Monday, July 13, 1885, in Towson, Maryland. Cooper was convicted of assault and rape and sentenced to death by a jury that deliberated for less than a minute. Fearing the verdict might be reversed upon appeal, a mob of masked white men dragged Cooper from his cell in the old Baltimore County Jail in Towson and hanged him from a sycamore tree next to the building. Participants may include descendants of Howard Cooper, witnesses, community members, archivists, and scholars of the community.

The hearings will also explore the involvement of State, county, and local government entities and news media in cases of racially motivated lynching. In 1898, for example, the Maryland General Assembly failed to pass proposed anti-lynching legislation. It is also well documented that county sheriffs and jailers allowed mobs to take men from jail with impunity, county state’s attorneys refused to identify and bring charges against members of lynch mobs, county coroners routinely claimed that the victims of lynching died “at the hands of parties unknown,” and newspaper coverage of these events helped to perpetuate a culture that condoned and encouraged racial terror lynchings.

HEARING DETAILS

When: Saturday, June 4, 2022

Time (in person and streaming): 9 am to 1 pm; with a 10-minute break

Where: Baltimore County Council Chambers, 400 Washington Avenue, Towson, MD 21204

How You Can Attend:

IN PERSON: Pre-registration is required. HERE.

We must limit the number of people who can register due to social distancing requirements. Please let us know if you must cancel so that we may honor those on the waiting list. Upon registering, you will receive a confirmation notice which you should bring with you to the hearing. You will pass through security and will be required to wear a mask and adhere to any other safety protocols that are required.

STREAMING: A link to stream the hearing will be posted on MLTRC’s website one day before the hearing.

How You Can Share Your Story:

Members of the public are encouraged to submit written testimony concerning how the lynching of Howard Cooper (or any other racially motivated lynching occurring in Baltimore County) has impacted their lives and their communities or making recommendations to address the legacy of lynching in Maryland and promote racial healing. Submit your testimony to mltrc@maryland.gov or bring your written testimony if you attend in-person.

The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission can be reached at https://msa.maryland.gov/lynching-truth-reconciliation/ or via email at mltrc@maryland.gov.

The Baltimore County Coalition of the MLMP can be reached at https://www.mdlynchingmemorial.org/ or via email at baltimoreco.mdlmp@gmail.com.

The Harford County Committee of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (HarCo MLMP)
invites you to attend a Remembrance Ceremony and Soil Collection to honor the victims of the three known racial terror lynchings in Harford County:

Isaac Moore (d. July 22, 1868)
Jim Quinn (d. October 2, 1869)
Lewis Harris (d. March 26, 1900)

The ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at:

Shamrock Park
39 Hickory Avenue
Bel Air, MD 21014

HarCo MLMP and our community partners strive to create greater awareness and understanding about racial terror lynchings. This is part of a national effort, which began over 30 years ago in Montgomery Alabama and was initiated by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

Between 1860 and 1950 over 6,500 African Americans were documented victims of racial terror lynchings in the United States. These public spectacles often involved torture, mutilation, and burning. They were intended to intimidate black communities and enforce a supposed racial hierarchy and segregation. In our home state of Maryland no fewer than 38 documented lynchings took place between 1854 and 1933 with at least 3 of those occurring in Harford County.

On Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 10a we intend to remember and dignify the lives of these men. We speak their names and communicate openly about what has taken place. We have begun the necessary conversations to advance truth and reconciliation and urge you to join us!

There is no charge for this event but we encourage you to register to attend and to help defray ceremony costs by making a contribution to the Harford County Committee of the MD Lynching Memorial Project.

To register, click:

Seating will be limited and attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs for their comfort.

The Baltimore County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project is holding its 3rd Annual Community Outreach Forum on Saturday, January 22, 2022 from 10a to 12p. The event is all virtual.

This past year was an important one for our coalition. In May, in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, we held a ceremony to install an EJI historical marker to memorialize the1885 lynching of Howard Cooper in Towson. The ceremony was attended by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Attorney General Brian Frosh, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. and EJI Project Manager Elliot Spillers, all of whom addressed the assembled crowd. Additionally, winners of the EJI Racial Justice Essay Contest were recognized and the winning essay was read.

While important in its own right, the marker installation ceremony signals a promise from the Baltimore County Coalition to continue its efforts to advance the cause of racial healing and reconciliation in our County and in the nation. The Annual Community Outreach Forum is one way we promote that work as we invite others to join the coalition.

This year, we're thrilled to be welcoming these guest speakers:

• Rev. Dr. Alvin Hathaway served as the 10th Pastor of historic Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, the same institution led by Rev. Harvey Johnson who played an critical role in the short life of Howard Cooper. In 1885 (just weeks before Cooper's lynching) Rev. Johnson founded the United Brotherhood of Liberty, one of the first civil rights organizations in the nation and a precursor to the NAACP. Dr. Hathaway is an expert on the life of Rev. Johnson and will discuss the role of the church and Rev. Johnson in advancing civil rights in Baltimore.

• Dr. Elyshia Aseltine is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Towson University and recipient of the Martha A. Mitten Professorship. Her research focuses on racial disparities in response to, and punishment of, crime. Dr. Aseltine will discuss the connection between racial terror lynching, over-policing and mass incarceration.
  

• Dr. Kalima Young is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University where she has created a project known as Invisible Architectures, a “multi-year, interdisciplinary container designed to create avenues for projects and programs that reinscribe the voices of Black, brown, indigenous, and immigrant populations in the narrative of Towson University’s origin story." An important element of the project is understanding how public spaces can reflect the history of racial trauma and express public and collective grief.

In addition to these presentations, the program will include a poetry reading about the Howard Cooper lynching by a Baltimore County middle school student as well as updates on the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Park, a concept for a "Freedom Trail" connecting the Ridgely Estate (Hampton Mansion) with Historic East Towson, the Black community founded in the 1850s by people who were formerly enslaved at the Ridgely Estate.

Finally, we will discuss preparations for the Baltimore County public hearing to be held on June 4, 2022 by the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Admission to the forum is free but registration is required. A link to the program will be sent to all registrants 24 hours before the event.

This Ceremony of Remembrance and Reconciliation is being held to memorialize King Johnson who was lynched in Brooklyn, Maryland on December 25, 1911. Brooklyn was part of Anne Arundel County, MD until the annexation of 1919, when it became part of Baltimore City. The Ceremony will recognize the traumatic lynching of King Johnson. It will include the collection of soil from near the lynching site and reflections from community members and leaders. It will end with a discussion facilitated by members of the Maryland Local Affiliate Groups of Coming to the Table (see https://comingtothetable.org/). 

You can read more about King Johnson’s lynching through these sources:

Maryland State Archives https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/013700/013760/html/13760bio.html. 

Forgo, Rik. “King Johnson: Maryland’s Governor Took Bold Action to End Lynchings in 1912.” Medium, June 21, 2019. https://medium.com/time-passages/king-johnson-marylands-governor-took-bold-action-to-end-lynchings-in-1912-caeb4285e7be. 

This event is being held in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative (see https://eji.org/) and the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (see https://www.mdlynchingmemorial.org/).

To register to attend this ceremony, click here:

This Saturday, December 4, from 1pm-3pm ET - Please join the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project and the #breathewithme Revolution for the World Premiere of Hidden in Full View.  A short film to commemorate the 90 year anniversary of the previously hidden story of the lynching of 23 year old Matthew Williams.

After the screening, a community conversation on social justice and the role of the truth to fuel restorative justice moderated by Prophet, co-founder of #breathewithme Revolution and the Black Music Action Coalition, joined by panelists:  

• Dr. Charles Chavis, Director of African and African American Studies, George Mason University, 

• Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter, Scott Waugh Endowed Chair in the Division of the Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and the Inaugural Chair of the Department of African American Studies at UCLA

• Dr. David Fakunle, Chair, Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 

• Katrina Binutu, Filmmaker, Crue Films, 

• Samson Binutu, Filmmaker, Crue Films, 

• Shannie Shields, Salisbury Activist, 

• Jeannie Jones, descendant of Matthew Williams, 

• Amber Green, Salisbury Activist and Director of Fenix Youth Project

TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE INFORMATION 

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Hidden in Full View is produced and co-written by Dr. Charles L. Chavis, Jr. Dr. Chavis is a professor, historian, and racial justice advocate and Director of African and African American Studies at George Mason University. Hidden in Full View is based on Dr. Chavis’ activism and investigation of racial terror on Maryland’s Eastern shore and is based on his forthcoming book, The Silent Shore: The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021). Hidden in Full View is his debut feature short documentary in a series of shorts that will uncover lesser-known episodes of racial terror in Black communities throughout the United States.

For its July 1 meeting, the MLMP First Thursday film group will consider the powerful and disturbing documentary, “Always in Season.”

From the film’s website: "ALWAYS IN SEASON explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects this form of historic racial terrorism to racial violence today. The film centers on the case of Lennon Lacy, an African American teen who was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, on August 29, 2014. Despite inconsistencies in the case, local officials quickly ruled Lennon’s death a suicide, but his mother, Claudia, believes Lennon was lynched. Claudia moves from paralyzing grief to leading the fight for justice for her son. 

"As the film unfolds, Lennon’s case, and the suspicions surrounding it, intersect with stories of other communities seeking justice and reconciliation. A few hundred miles away in Monroe, Georgia, a diverse group of reenactors, including the adult daughter of a former Ku Klux Klan leader, annually

dramatize a 1946 quadruple lynching to ensure the victims are never forgotten and encourage the community to come forward with information that might bring the perpetrators to justice. As the terrorism of the past bleeds into the present, the film asks: what will it take for Americans to begin building a national movement for racial justice and reconciliation?"

We are honored that our panel for the evening’s discussion includes three members of the Maryland Lynching Truth & Reconciliation Commission: Chair David Fakunle, Ph.D., Vice Chair Charles Chavis, Ph. D. and Carl Snowden.

The program is free but you must register. Upon signing up, you will be provided with a link to stream the film for free. For more information, and to register, click here:

Watch the PBS documentary, Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten, debuting on MPT, Monday, May 31, 2021 at 9pm EST. This revealing film examines the Tulsa Race Massacre 100 Years Later and explores the history of “Black Wall Street,” anti-Black violence, and Black resilience in America.

JOIN our virtual discussion of the event and the film on Thursday, June 3 at 6-8 pm

Featuring our distinguished panelists DeNeen Brown, award-winning Washington Post reporter and oral historian in the Fire and Forgotten; and scholar Dr. Charles Chavis, author of the Silent Shore: The Lynchng of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State and assistant professor of Conflict Resolution and History at George Mason University, Both Brown and Chavis serve on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Registration required at lilliecarrolljacksonmuseum.org/events

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project reports that 40 Black American victims of racial terror were lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1950. Lynching victim Townsend Cook will be memorialized on June 2, 2021 at 7:00PM, the date of his killing in 1885 in Westminster.

The remembrance gathering has been planned by the Carroll County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, a program of the Equal Justice Initiative's Lynching in America.

According to local Steering Team co-leader Jack Del Nunzio, "June 2, 2021 will mark 136 years since Townsend Cook, a Black nineteen or twenty-year-old, was lynched by masked white citizens in Westminster, Maryland. Cook was survived by formerly enslaved parents, Margaret and Augustus, and three siblings: Dennis, Roderick, and Mary. Some 40 white Carroll Countians violently abducted Cook from the Old Jail House and subsequently hanged him from an oak tree adjacent to present day Route 27. Before Cook's body was autopsied and buried at the Almshouse (known today as the Carroll County Farm Museum), it was desecrated with bullets and pieces of the bloodied rope were distributed as mementos throughout the city of Westminster," adds Del Nunzio who is also a Public History MA Student at American University and Alumnus of McDaniel College's History Department.

"On June 2, 2021, flanked by Westminster's Old Jail House, our community will begin working toward truth telling, restorative justice, and healing by centering Townsend Cook: his humanity, his family, his descendants, and the Black Carroll Countians who live with the enduring trauma and everyday reality of anti-Black violence," Del Nunzio added.

Other speakers and participants at the remembrance ceremony include Diane Hurd of Union Memorial Baptist Church, local coalition co-leader Rev. Erin Snell, and former President of the Carroll County NAACP Jean Lewis. Other guest speakers will be announced as they are confirmed.

Dr. Roxanna Harlow, co-leader of the Carroll County Coalition Steering Team, notes, "There is a narrative in Carroll County that racism is in the past and restricted to a few bad apples. But the past is still present today, reflected in displays of the Confederate flag, racial slurs heard in school hallways, policy decisions around transportation and planning, and more. Tensions persist and wounds fester when racial violence - physical and/or social - is never acknowledged or addressed. By memorializing Townsend Cook, we hope to inspire cross racial conversations around racial reconciliation and equity."

Just after midnight on Monday, July 13, 1885, a 15-year old boy named Howard Cooper was dragged from a cell in the old Baltimore County Jail in Towson by 75 masked men and hanged from a sycamore tree next to the building. His was one ofat least 40 racial terror lynchings in the state between 1854 and 1933. 

Racial terror lynchings were often public spectacles; sadistic and grotesque displays meant to intimidate blacks and flaunt white superiority.  They were acts of domestic terrorism. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has documented at least 6,500 black Americans were lynched in the United States between 1865 and 1950.

Cooper was convicted of assault and rape by an all-white jury that reached its verdicts in less than a minute. An appeal to the US Supreme Court was planned. Rather than risk a reversal, an enraged mob “summarily disposed” of the case “without the intervention” of the high court.

To publicly acknowledge Cooper’s lynching and honor his memory, the Baltimore County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MLMP), in partnership with EJI and the Baltimore County government, will install an historical marker at the site of Cooper’s murder. 

The public ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, May 8, 2021 at 11a and will feature comments from representatives of government (including Maryland House Speaker Del. Adrienne Jones and Baltimore County Executive, John A. Olszewski, Jr.), EJI and MLMP as well as performances from community artists. Additionally, the winner of the EJI-sponsored high school Racial Justice Essay Contest will read his or her winning essay. All contest finalists will receive scholarships from EJI.  

The MLMP believes community remembrance projects like this are critical for promoting racial reconciliation in the state by focusing attention on the neglected history of racial terror. Most people are unaware of the scale and depravity of the racial terror we inflicted on our own citizens. 

Acknowledging this dark history can also foster insight into the devastation the legacy of lynching has inflicted and the ways it continues to wreak damage.

Finally, recognizing these murders in a solemn and public manner will honor and dignify the lives of the victims, like young Cooper, and will strengthen our community by bringing us together for a common, honorable and just purpose.

Join the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project for our First Thursday Film Discussion of two documentaries focusing on two of the most important and influential Black literary figures of the 20th century.

"I Am Not Your Negro", by director Raoul Peck, was hailed as "a life-altering new documentary" by NY Times critic A.O. Scott in his REVIEW of the film in 2017, the year of its release. "Whatever you think about the past and future of what used to be called “race relations” — white supremacy and the resistance to it, in plainer English — this movie will make you think again, and may even change your mind."

The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and consists entirely of Baldwin's own words, from many of his published works as well as unpublished letters. The film also draws on a compendium of film and video of Baldwin's public and private appearances. The film, Scott writes, "doesn’t just make you aware of Baldwin, or hold him up as a figure to be admired from a distance. You feel entirely in his presence, hanging on his every word, following the implications of his ideas as they travel from his experience to yours"

Writing in EMPIRE, critic Nikki Braught describes "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am" as a "celebratory portrait of (the) author ... painted by those who knew her, this compelling documentary also explores how her work gives such a powerful voice to the African American experience."

The film, released earlier this year, follows Morrison's life and career as an editor and features remembrances from friends including Angela Davis, Walter Mosely, Oprah Winfrey and others.

We are thrilled to welcome the following distinguished scholars to the panel:

Justin Joyce, Ph.D. is one of the founding editors of James Baldwin Review and Research Director for President McBride at The New School. An interdisciplinary scholar of literature and film, his first monograph is Gunslinging Justice: The American Culture of Gun Violence in Westerns and The Law (Manchester UP, 2018). He has been featured in interviews and discussions on The Humanities on the High Plains podcast and on RadioWest. Dr. Joyce’s writings have also appeared in A Historical Guide to James Baldwin (2009), James Baldwin in Context (2019), The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative (2014), and the journals Western American Literature, James Baldwin Review, Public Seminar, and Great Plains Quarterly. 

James Baldwin Review (JBR) is an annual journal that brings together a wide array of peer‐reviewed critical and creative non-fiction on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin. The journal is available for free on its open access website: https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/journals/jbr/jbr-overview.xml

A.J. Verdelle is a working mother and author of The Good Negress, a novel that won five national prizes, including: a Whiting Writers Award, finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, for the IMPAC/Dublin Literary Award, and for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Verdelle also received the Vursell Distinguished Prose Fiction award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. Verdelle has published essays about art, photography, and Hurricane Katrina. Verdelle teaches undergraduates at Morgan State University and works with graduate writers in the low-residency MFA program at Lesley University. In Fall 2021, Harper/Amistad will publish Ms. Verdelle’s memoir about her relationship with the late Toni Morrison.

Both films are currently streaming over several platforms.You are encouraged to view the film prior to the discussion.

Admission to the film panel discussion is free but you must register here!

It was the only successful coup d'état in the history of the United States and a story of racial terror largely obscured from the annals of American history. 

In 1898, a group of white vigilantes—angry and fearful at the newly elected biracial local government—joined forces with area militias to rain terror on Wilmington, North Carolina, then the South’s most progressive Black-majority city. 

After stoking fear of a Black uprising that would upend their way of life, endanger their women and bring about an unfathomable new American reality in which Black men—not white—governed, white city leaders pledged to “choke the current of the Cape Fear with carcasses” rather than allow Wilmington’s Black citizens to succeed, and lead. 

When the carnage ended, more than 100 Black government officials—city councilmen, the city clerk, the treasurer, the city attorney and others—had been forced from their elected roles. Somewhere between 60 and 250 Black citizens were murdered. 

After the coup, for which no one was ever prosecuted or punished, more than 100,000 registered Black voters fled the city. No Black citizen would again serve in public office for three-quarters of a century.

“It was a massacre,” says Christopher Everett, director of Wilmington on Fire, a documentary on the uprising. “A massacre kept secret for over 100 years.”

Aaron Randle
History.com

"Wilmington on Fire" is a feature-length documentary that chronicles The Wilmington Massacre of 1898, a bloody attack on the African-American community by a heavily armed white mob. It is considered one of the only successful examples of a violent overthrow of an existing government and left countless numbers of African-Americans dead and exiled from the city. 

This event was the springboard for the White Supremacy movement and Jim Crow segregation throughout the state of North Carolina and the American South. This incident has been barely mentioned and has been omitted from most history books. It was not until 2006, after the North Carolina General Assembly published a report on it, that the tragedy became known to the general public.

Joining us for the discussion of this important and timely film are three of its principals:

• Christopher Everett is the Producer/Director of Wilmington on Fire. A native of Laurinburg, NC, this is his first feature-length film. His background includes experience in graphics, advertising and marketing, as well as acting
  

• LeRae Sikes Umfleet is Chief of Collections Management for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. From 2003 to 2007, Ms. Umfleet was a research historian in the Research Branch of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. In 2007 she received the American Association for State and Local History's Award of Merit and WOW Award for her work on the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Report
  

• Larry Reni Thomas, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, is a writer, radio host, lecturer and actor based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He has worked at seven radio stations and his journalistic work has appeared in Downbeat magazine and The New York Times Magazine. He is the author of two books on the Wilmington Ten incident of February 1971

Wilmington on Fire is available for viewing on a number of platforms, including Prime Video. For more information on streaming, visit: http://wilmingtononfire.com/stream

The event link will be emailed to all registrants the day before the event. 

The panel is free but you must register here:

We look forward to seeing you on February 4 at 7p.

Join us on Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 10a (ET) for this virtual public meeting as we discuss the importance of acknowledging the history of racial terror lynchings in Baltimore County. We will review what is known about two Baltimore County lynchings and discuss why it is important to acknowledge these crimes. We will consider the historic narrativearound lynchings and why and how it is vital to change it. To that end, we will discuss effective ways to engage the public in these efforts in order to advance the goals of truth and reconciliation in Baltimore County, in Maryland and in our country.

We are honored to welcome these distinguished guests to the meeting:

• John Olszewski, Jr. - a graduate of Sparrows Point High School with degrees from Goucher College, George Washington University and UMBC, "Johnny O." is the Baltimore County Executive. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates at the age of 23 and has served as County Executive since 2018

• Charles Chavis, Ph.D. - Dr. Chavis is the Director for the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice and Race at George Mason University. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth & Reconciliation Commission and is a member of the board of directors of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project

• Shanedra Nowell, Ph.D. - An Assistant Professor of Secondary Education at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Nowell has developed a groundbreaking workshop for educators called "Writing and Remembrance: Strategies for Teaching the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre"

Following the program, the Baltimore County Coalition will hold its regular meeting. We welcome all interested to attend and join the ranks of our volunteers. 

The meeting agenda includes updates on plans for the installation ceremony for an historic marker at the old Baltimore County Jail in Towson, site of the 1885 lynching of a 15-year old Black boy, Howard Cooper. The ceremony is being held in partnership with the Equal Justice initiative.

We will also review plans for a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Park across from the jail site and will hear about ongoing outreach programs including the First Thursday Film Discussion and Anti-Racism Book Group, which is being run in partnership with the Baltimore County Public Library. 

Registration is free. A link for the meeting will be sent to registrants 24 hours before the event.

The popular Maryland Lynching Memorial Project First Thursday Film Group returns on December 3 at 7p with a discussion of the acclaimed 2020 documentary on the life of civil rights icon: “John Lewis: Good Trouble”.

The discussion will be even more timely as it will take place just days after the national election. Writing in the NY Times, critic Ben Kenigsberg notes the film, “makes an urgent argument: that a new wave of voter suppression has threatened the rights that Lewis labored to secure.”

Says Georgia politician and voting rights advocate, Stacey Abrams, “John Lewis reminds us that the past is not past.”

Here is the review of the film by Ben Kenigsberg that appeared in the NY Times just weeks before the Congressman's death in July: 

The civil rights leader and longtime Georgia congressman John Lewis surely requires no introduction, but "John Lewis: Good Trouble", a documentary from Dawn Porter, provides a solid one anyway, striking a good balance between revisiting Lewis’s most famous work as an activist and chronicling his life today.

Porter shows Lewis campaigning for Democratic candidates throughout the 2018 election cycle and takes us through a tick-tock of a recent day, even as she interweaves footage of episodes from his storied career. Lewis recalls becoming immersed in the philosophy of nonviolence in Nashville, where he and others fought segregation. The film shows him speaking at the March on Washington. Lewis shares a memory of being physically struck while marching in Selma, Ala.

Current and former colleagues — including Elijah Cummings, who died in October and to whom the film is dedicated — line up to praise him. Discussing an incident in which Lewis, as one of the Freedom Riders, was beaten bloody in Rock Hill, S.C., the House majority whip, James E. Clyburn, says he has often wondered what might have happened if he had been there, because he was never as tenaciously nonviolent as Lewis was. The documentary is only occasionally less than adulatory, as when recalling Lewis’s race for Congress in 1986 against his friend and fellow activist Julian Bond.

Although the film uses a conventional format, it makes an urgent argument: that a new wave of voter suppression has threatened the rights that Lewis labored to secure. That context gives older footage — of Lewis and Bond encouraging voter registration in 1971 in Mississippi, for instance — a renewed power.

We are honored to welcome these distinguished panelists to discuss the film:

• Dan Rodricks is a long-time columnist for The Baltimore Sun, and a local radio and television personality who has won several national and regional journalism awards over a reporting, writing and broadcast career spanning five decades. In addition to his regular column in the Sun papers, Dan was the host of daily talk radio shows on both WBAL-AM and WYPR-FM and also presided over the celebrated weekly television program, Rodricks for Breakfast, on WMAR-TV. He is the author of three books, including "Father's Day Creek" (Apprentice House 2019)
  

• Carl Snowden is a legendary civil rights and community activist, columnist and convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders. Fifty years ago, as a student, Snowden led a boycott of Annapolis High School to protest lack of African American faculty and curriculum. Carl was also instrumental in gaining a posthumous pardon from Maryland Governor Parris N. Glendening for John Snowden (no relation) who was executed in Annapolis in 1919
  

• DeWayne Wickham began his journalism career in the summer of 1973 as a copy editing intern with the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. Over the next 42 years, he worked for the Baltimore Sun, U.S. News & World Report, Black Enterprise magazine, CBS News, BET News and USA TODAY, where he wrote a nationally-syndicated opinion column for 30 years. He is a founding member and former president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), which gave him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. In 2016, he was inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame.

You are encouraged to view the film prior to the discussion. The film can be streamed over a number of online services. Check here for further details:
https://www.johnlewisgoodtrouble.com/watch-at-home...

Admission to the film panel discussion is free but you must register here.As always, admission to the film discussion is free but you must register in advance.

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project's annual "Lynching in Maryland" conference will be held online this year due to the ongoing public health emergency. This will be the third year we have presented this program.

This year's conference will be held:

Saturday, October 17, 2020
10a to 12.30p.

One of this year's keynote speakers will be Michael Pfeifer, Ph.D., Professor of History at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Dr. Pfeifer has studied the history of collective violence and criminal justice in the United States.

In addition to many scholarly articles, Dr. Pfeifer is the author of no fewer than five books on the history of lynching including a seminal work on the subject, Rough Justice Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947 (University of Illinois Press).

At the upcoming conference, Dr. Pfeifer will speak about a relatively neglected chapter in the history of racial terror, namely the lynchings of enslaved persons and free blacks before the Civil War. This period includes the lynching of Dave Thomas in Denton, Md., in 1854, the first documented racial terror lynching in Maryland. 

In addition, there will be a timely and important panel discussion on how the legacy of lynching continues to influence the Black vote.

Another panel will examine the state of social justice activism in Maryland from the Eastern Shore to Garrett County in the west. 

There will also be updates from representatives of the MD Lynching Truth & Reconciliation Commission and the Equal Justice Initiative.

The response to our previous two conferences has been overwhelming. Don't miss your chance to be a part of this important and powerful symposium.

We urge everyone to REGISTER NOW!

Ava Duvernay's "13th" is one of the most powerful and influential non-fiction films ever made. With breathtaking clarity and heartbreaking effect, "13th" demonstrates how five words in the text of the amendment utterly changed its meaning and impact. Instead of ending slavery, in fact, the amendment extended it, altering the course of justice and race relations in this country in ways that are still painfully evident today. As Bryan Stevenson (Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative) observed, "Slavery didn't end in 1865, it just evolved." Ms, Duvernay's film proves that proposition in painstaking and undeniable detail.

Please join us on Thursday, August 6, 2020 at 7:00pm for a discussion on the historic and contemporary pernicious effects of the 13th amendment and the role it plays in the Black Lives Matter era.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Premal Dharia is the Founder and Director of the Defender Impact Initiative, an organization dedicated to making structural changes in the criminal system by working with and empowering public defenders. She served as a public defender in Washington, DC, Baltimore and Guantanamo Bay and has spent 20 years seeking to transform the criminal system to make it more just.

• Jim Wyda was appointed the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland District in 1998. He grew up in East Baltimore and graduated from Loyola Blakefield before attending Trinity College and Yale Law School. Mr. Wyda clerked for the Honorable Frank Kaufman, US District Judge for the District of Maryland. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Law School.

The film can be viewed on Netflix, YouTube or at http://www.avaduvernay.com/#/13th/

Attendance at the panel discussion is free, but you must pre-register here.

“Our democracy hangs in the balance. This is not an overstatement.” 

— Michelle Alexander in the NY Times, June 8, 2020

Attempts to interfere in our election by Russia and other foreign players have received much deserved attention since 2016. But an even more insidious threat to our democracy may be homegrown: voter suppression.

“In a close election the rules matter,” says Rick Hasen of UC Irvine and author of Election Meltdown, “and if the rules can be manipulated it can affect the outcome of elections.”

Recognizing that voting rights are civil rights, the July selection for the MD LMP First Thursday film series is a provocative and disturbing documentary that takes a sobering look at the hydra that is voter suppression.

Narrated by Jeffrey Wright, Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook chronicles how our right to vote is being undercut by a decade of dirty tricks - including the partisan use of gerrymandering and voter purges, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court. The film captures real-time voter purges in North Carolina and voter intimidation in Texas.

We are honored to welcome a distinguished panel to discuss the film:

• David Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom

• Tim Smith, award-winning producer of Rigged

• Gilda Daniels, Associate Professor at University of Baltimore School of Law and author of Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America

The cause and course of racial justice in our nation is intimately bound to the outcome of the 2020 election. It’s therefore incumbent upon all of us to understand the grave and imminent threat that voter suppression poses to “free and fair elections” and what we, as citizens, can do to protect the vote and our democracy.

Please join us on Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 7.00p for an important discussion of the issue and this film. We look forward to seeing and hearing from you then.

When you register, you will receive a link and password allowing you to screen the film on your own for free, in advance of the discussion.  Attendance at the panel discussion is also free, but you must pre-register here.

The second public meeting of the Carroll County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project will take place via Zoom on June 27th at 10:00AM.

Community members interested in participating in researching and/or planning community remembrance projects for Carroll County lynching victim, Townsend Cook, are invited to attend this meeting. We will view the EJI film, Abbeville, which details the remembrance project that took place in the Abbeville community to remember racial terror lynching victim, Anthony Crawford.

Afterwards, we will review the general timeline of our community remembrance project. During the last portion of the meeting, participants will be asked to join one of two teams, the Research Team or the Education & Community Outreach Team. Participants will break into two “rooms” and share ideas and discuss next steps with members of the Planning & Coordinating Team. Your help is needed and appreciated.

 Please register to receive Zoom instructions.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact:

Erin Snell

snell_erin@hotmail.com

443-244-0636 (call or text)

March 13, 2020 - IMPORTANT NOTICE!

Due to the public health emergency

This ceremony has been POSTPONED

and will be rescheduled!

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

____________________________

The Harford County Committee of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (HarCo MLMP) invites you to attend a Remembrance Ceremony and Soil Collection to honor the victims of the three known racial terror lynchings in Harford County:

Isaac Moore (d. July 22, 1868)
Jim Quinn (d. October 2, 1869)
Lewis Harris (d. March 26, 1900)

HarCo MLMP and our community partners strive to create greater awareness and understanding about racial terror lynchings. This is part of a national effort, which began over 30 years ago in Montgomery Alabama and was initiated by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). 

Between 1877 and 1950 over 4,400 African Americans were documented victims of racial terror lynchings in the United States. These public spectacles often involved torture, mutilation, and burning. They were intended to intimidate black communities and enforce a supposed racial hierarchy and segregation. In our home state of Maryland no fewer than 40 documented lynchings took place between 1865 to 1933 with at least 3 of those occurring in Harford County. 

On Saturday, March 28 we intend to remember and dignify the lives of these men. We speak their names and communicate openly about what has taken place. We have begun the necessary conversations to advance truth and reconciliation and urge you to join us!  

Following the ceremony a reception and a community conversation will be held at:

Ames United Methodist Church
112 Baltimore Pike
Bel Air, MD 21014

There is no charge for this event but we encourage you to register to attend and to help defray ceremony costs by making a contribution to the Harford County Committee of the MD Lynching Memorial Project.

Seating will be limited and attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs for their comfort.

You may register and contribute to the Harford County Committee by clicking here:

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the public health emergency

This screening has been POSTPONED

and will be rescheduled!

Ticket holders will be contacted with details when a new date and time have been determined.

Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

____________________________________________________________________

The Carroll County Coalition of the MD Lynching Memorial Project is proud to be hosting a private screening of "Just Mercy" in Carroll County on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 10.00am at R/C Westminster Movies 9. (Doors open at 9.30am.) The critically acclaimed film is based on the best-selling memoir of the same name by Equal Justice Initiative Founder and Executive Director, Bryan Stevenson.

Due to limited time and availability there will be NO refunds and NO exchanges offered!

PLEASE NOTE:
In order to make this exclusive opportunity available to as many supporters as possible, we have set the ticket price to $10.00/person. We encourage those who are able to make an additional tax-free contribution with your ticket order.

From IMDB.com: A powerful and thought-provoking true-story, "Just Mercy" follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan might have had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson.) One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx,) who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds-and the system-stacked against them.

— Gregg Brilliant

For tickets and information click here:

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the public health emergency

This meeting has been CANCELED

and will be rescheduled!

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

_______________________________________________

Did you know Montgomery County has a history of lynching?

Join the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project and Montgomer History for a free program.

As part of a growing national effort initiated by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, the Montgomery County (Maryland) Lynching Memorial Project works to create greater awareness about the racial terrorism of lynching that took place in our county. We seek to further local conversations that advance racial reconciliation across the county.

Program highlights:

• Michael V. WIlliams, Social Studies Resource Teacher and Co-County Coordinator for the Minority Scholars Program, John F. Kennedy HS will give a snapshot on race relations and post-reconstruction in the US in 1880 and the racial climate in Montgomer County in the late 1800s;

• Sarah Hedlund, Archivist and Libraryian at Montgomery History, will provide an overview on the three confirmed lynchings in MoCo, focusing on two in Rockville;

• Tony Cohen, historian, Founding Director of the Menare Foundation and a leader of the MoCo Lynching Memorial Project will address the question: How do we know what we know?” by focusing on specific artifacts associated with lynching, e.g. maps, photos, articles, “the hanging tree”

A Q&A session and light refreshments will follow the program.

For additional information contact: mocolynchingmemorial@gmail.com

January 18 meeting POSTPONED
This meeting has been rescheduled for February 22!

___________________________________________________

The Prince George's County Committee of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project will hold its next public meeting on February 22, 2020 to continue to explore ideas for community remembrance projects in Prince George's County as a way to begin the process of healing and reconciliation.

Several members of the Montgomery County group will be present to discuss their experience in planning and executing a successful and well-attended soil collection ceremony to commemorate the lynching of George Peck in Poolesville, MD this past November.

Even if you weren’t able to attend our earlier meetings of the PG County Committee, we welcome your participation as we move forward with this important work.

To register to attend the Prince George's County meeting, click here:

In 1885, a 15-year old boy named Howard Cooper was lynched in Towson. His was one of more than 40 racial terror lynchings in Maryland between 1854 and 1933.

Cooper had been convicted of assault and rape by an all white jury, which deliberated less than a minute before reaching its verdict. His attorneys were about to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court based on Cooper’s 14th Amendment rights. Rather than risk a reversal, a mob of about 75 masked men dragged Cooper from the old Baltimore County Jail in Towson and hung him from a sycamore tree next to the building. 

To publicly acknowledge this murder and honor the victim, the Baltimore County Committee of the MD Lynching Memorial Project is working to install a permanent historical marker at the site in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).  The Committee has targeted an installation ceremony for later this spring.

Subcommittees have already been created for the following task areas:

• Remembrance ceremony

• Logistics

• High School Social Justice Essay Contest

• Community Outreach

This meeting will allow all the subcommittees to meet individually and to report on their progress to the larger group. Everyone is invited to attend!

Please park in the lot adjacent to the building and enter through the main entrance on Central Avenue.

Please note: Central Avenue is a one way street headed NORTH so you'll need to approach the building from the Allegheny Avenue (south) end.

ALSO: Pay attention to the parking restrictions posted on Central Avenue!

The Carroll County Committee will hold its first public meeting on February 15, 2020 at 2p (snow date 2/22/2020). 

We will discuss the importance of acknowledging the history of racial terrorism in Carroll County; remember Townsend Cook; and explore ideas for community remembrance projects in Carroll County as a way to begin the process of healing and reconciliation.

In case of inclement weather, please check www.carrollcitizensforracialequality.org for postponement information.

NOTE NEW DATE!!

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project seeks to advance the cause of reconciliation in our state by documenting racial terror lynchings, advocating for public acknowledgment of these murders, and working to honor and dignify the lives of Maryland’s lynching victims.

Consistent with these goals, we are creating a Baltimore County Lynching Memorial Committee and hope to build a broad coalition that will work together to identify, plan and organize appropriate ways of acknowledging the victims of racial terror in the county and advancing the cause of reconciliation.

The meeting on January 25, 2020 will include presentations and films from the MD Lynching Memorial Project, local historians, community leaders and others. However, the bulk of the meeting will be dedicated to a public discussion on the legacy of lynching in Baltimore County and how to address it.

Your voice matters! Join us on the path from truth to reconciliation!

To register to attend the Baltimore County meeting, click here:

POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER!
Meeting will be rescheduled soon!

Between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II, more than 4,000 black Americans were victims of racial terror lynchings in the United States. No fewer than 40 of these crimes were committed in Maryland, including at least two in Howard County.

Join us to discuss a variety of ways the Howard County community can come to grips with the truth concerning the lynchings that occurred here, including community remembrance projects to commemorate these crimes and honor the victims. The first few meetings will be about the TRUTH, which is needed before possible reconciliation can happen. 

 Registration is strongly encouraged, since the room will be set up according to our projected needs. To register, click here:

Members of the public are invited to a community meeting on Saturday, December 14, 2019 from 1:00p to 3:00p to discuss the importance of acknowledging the history of racial terror lynchings in Howard County, Maryland, pay respect to the victims and their families and explore ideas for community remembrance projects as a way to begin the process of racial healing.

Between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II, more than 4,000 black Americans were victims of racial terror lynchings in the United States. No fewer than 40 of these crimes were committed in Maryland, including at least two in Howard County:

• Rev. Hesekiah Brown on December 12, 1884 in Clarksville

• Jacob Henson on March 28, 1895 in Ellicott City

Working with local coalitions, the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project seeks to advance the cause of reconciliation in our state by documenting racial terror lynchings, advocating for public acknowledgment of these murders, and working to honor and dignify the lives of Maryland’s lynching victims.

Consistent with these goals, we are creating the Howard County Lynching Memorial Committee and hope to engage representatives from business and industry, community leaders, parents, and students in this effort. We believe that for community remembrance projects to be successful and meaningful, they must offer all community members the opportunity to provide input and service on this committee.

Admission is free but space is limited. If you wish to attend, please register by clicking here:

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project is honored to host our second conference, “Lynching in Maryland: The Journey from Truth to Reconciliation”, on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at the Morgan State University Student Center in Baltimore from 9:30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. (Doors will open at 9:00 a.m.)

Co-sponsored by the MSU Robert M. Bell Center for Civil Rights in Education and the Lillie Carroll Jackson Civil Rights Museum, the conference will include presentations, films and discussions examining Maryland’s legacy of lynchings, the damage it continues to inflict and how we can begin to heal those injuries.There will be a particular emphasis on "restorative justice", what it means and how it may influence the truth and reconciliation process in the state.

We hope to provide a live stream link for those who are unable to attend in person. PLEASE check our website for upcoming information and a link. Thank you for your interest and stay in touch for future events.

MD State Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D, 21st) was the lead sponsor of HB 307, the legislation that created the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She will discuss the backstory of how the bill was passed in a free, public address in the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). The talk has been arranged by Dr. Marshall Stevenson, Jr., Dean of the School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts. Dr. Stevenson represents UMES on the Commission.

UMES is located in Princess Anne where George Armwood was lynched in 1933. It is the last known lynching to have occurred in Maryland.