Maryland Governor Grants Posthumous Pardons To 34 Black Lynching Victims
By Eric McDaniel
May 9, 2021
Thirty-four Black men and boys lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1933 were granted posthumous pardons by Gov. Larry Hogan on Saturday.
Hogan made the announcement at an event held to memorialize Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old boy who in 1885 was dragged from the Baltimore County Jail and hanged while his criminal case was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Students at the state’s Loch Raven Technical Academy and the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project petitioned the governor earlier this year to pardon Cooper, which led Hogan to instruct his staff to search for all of the available accounts of racist lynching in state.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, far right, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski and Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones stand next to a new historic marker on Saturday in Towson, Md., that memorializes Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old who was dragged from a jailhouse and hanged by a mob in 1885. Brian Witte / AP
Thirty-four Black men and boys lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1933 were granted posthumous pardons by Gov. Larry Hogan on Saturday.
Hogan made the announcement at an event held to memorialize Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old boy who in 1885 was dragged from the Baltimore County Jail and hanged while his criminal case was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, far right, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski and Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones stand next to a new historic marker on Saturday in Towson, Md., that memorializes Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old who was dragged from a jailhouse and hanged by a mob in 1885.
Thirty-four Black men and boys lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1933 were granted posthumous pardons by Gov. Larry Hogan on Saturday.
Hogan made the announcement at an event held to memorialize Howard Cooper, a 15-year-old boy who in 1885 was dragged from the Baltimore County Jail and hanged while his criminal case was pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.