Maryland Governor Pardons 34 Lynching Victims Killed Between 1854 and 1933

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has posthumously pardoned 34 lynching victims killed between 1854 and 1933.

On Saturday, Hogan issued the pardons of the Black victims at an event in Towson. One of the victims was 15-year-old Howard Cooper, who was dragged from the Towson jail and lynched by a white mob on July 13, 1885. An all-white jury had convicted the teen of raping white teenager, Katie Gray. However, neither Gray nor Cooper testified that Gray was raped. Nevertheless, Cooper was sentenced to death by hanging.

Hogan’s pardons are the first of its kind in the country meant to “right these horrific wrongs.”

“Today, we are once again leading the way as we continue the work to build a more perfect union,” the Republican governor stated.

Hogan was initially motivated by a petition from students at Loch Raven Technical Academy who called for Cooper to be pardoned “in light of the fact that he was never afforded due process under the law.” The governor agreed and dismissed charges against the wrongfully accused victims of “racial terror lynchings.”

During the Towson event, a marker was unveiled next to the former jailhouse where Cooper was held. Hogan also read the names of the other lynching victims, which included a 13-year-old boy named Frederick.

Willie Flowers, head of Maryland’s NAACP chapter, is not impressed with Hogan’s pardoning and believes that the move was a stunt to benefit him in his future political endeavors.

“If the governor’s going to do something, he should, with his power as governor, look at the many broken systems based on the same type of vitriol, contempt, hatred that caused the murders of these gentlemen. Every system that has been broken, as the governor of Maryland, he alone can change all of it.”

Flowers also added, “Celebrating himself by reminding people that lynchings happened is not the best thing you can do. It’s actually the least that he could do.”