CHESTERTOWN — A historical marker near the site of James Taylor’s lynching in 1892 in downtown Chestertown will be unveiled Sunday afternoon, May 17 to culminate the local observance of Justice Day.
The James Taylor Justice Coalition of Sumner Hall is overseeing Sunday’s program, which will get underway at 3 p.m. in the parish hall of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
The public is invited.
Joseline Peña-Melnyk, Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, will deliver the keynote address.
She is widely recognized as being the driving force behind legislation that established the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which authorized research into racially motivated lynchings and to hold public meetings and regional hearings into the 38 documented lynchings of an African American by a white mob in Maryland between 1854 and 1933.
In all cases no one was ever tried, convicted or otherwise held accountable for participating in these lawless acts of violence, although the perpetrators were often known to law enforcement.
Other speakers on Sunday will include Amy Millin, president of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project; Jaelon Moaney, deputy director of Washington College’s Starr Center; Kent County State’s Attorney Bryan DiGregory; and Chestertown Mayor Meghan Efland.
There also will be musical and spoken word performances.
The program will conclude with the unveiling of the James Taylor historical marker on Cross Street. This is the eighth marker — representing 18 victims — erected in Maryland by the Equal Justice Initiative and Maryland coalitions similar to the James Taylor Justice Coalition.
James Taylor, a 23-year-old Black man, was lynched on May 17, 1892 by a mob of about 60 masked and armed individuals with an estimated 500 citizen onlookers.
He had been accused of allegedly assaulting the 11-year-old daughter of his white employer.
Taylor never had a chance to stand trial for his alleged crime.
Instead, he was abducted from police custody by the mob, dragged into the street, and hanged from a small maple tree near what is now the courthouse in the 100-block of N. Cross Street, Chestertown.
Taylor proclaimed his innocence up until the last hour of his life, according to The Baltimore Sun‘s reporting.
A coroner’s jury concluded the next day that Taylor died after being hanged by a group of masked men “unknown to the jury,” despite reports that members of the mob were known.
Taylor is the only documented lynching victim in Kent County.
The Equal Justice Initiative offers historical markers in connection with its Community Remembrance Project, which focuses on memorializing the more than 6,500 African American victims of racial terror lynching killed between the end of the Civil War and World War II.
Since 2015 the Equal Justice Initiative has funded the manufacture and placement of more than 80 historical markers in communities across the United States
“We need to know our history if we want to make change happen today,” said Larry Wilson, former president of Sumner Hall and co-chair of the James Taylor Justice Coalition.
Wilson said “Justice Day is a way to understand the racial and social injustices of today in their historical context.”
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In May 2021, James Taylor, who was lynched two days after his arrest, received a full posthumous pardon by then-Gov. Larry Hogan.
Hogan also issued pardons for 33 other Black men who were lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1933.
He stated that these extrajudicial killings violated fundamental rights to due process and equal protection of law.
Hogan was the first governor to issue a blanket pardon for the victims of racial lynchings.
The pardon states: “By his authority under Article II, Section 20, of the Constitution of Maryland, and having thought proper the extension of clemency, Governor Hogan has absolved these persons from the guilt of their criminal offenses, and any pains and penalties imposed upon them.”
In addition to the full pardon, Hogan sent a letter to then-President Joe Biden encouraging him to establish a U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission.
In 2019, Hogan signed into law a measure establishing the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first of its kind in the United States.
One Response
It will be an interesting and thoughtful event – and long overdue.