In Focus Today
(2005-07-19)
Some Wicomico County teachers were surprised Monday (July 11) to learn about past lynchings in Maryland as they viewed pictures of burned black bodies surrounded by white people with glee.
"In many cases, African-Americans would be hung, burned or both," said lecturer Dean Kotlowski, Salisbury University history professor. "Between 1880 to 1939 angry mobs lynched 4,697 fellow Americans. Of these victims 3,344 were African-Americans."
The presentation was part of a "Teaching American History" series of various local history lessons developed to improve how history is taught in America's schools, said project coordinator Richard Wilson.
Juan Williams, National Public Radio senior correspondent, lead a discussion on civil rights. He discussed his book "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965" and his biography of Thurgood Marshall.
Wicomico County received a three-year grant of more than $800,000, which was sponsored by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., for schools nationwide, he said.
In its second year, 40 teachers and nine SU professors gathered to conduct research through museum excursions and personal first account interviews for next school year's lesson plans, Wilson said.
Topics included economic changes, citizenship, religion, oral history workshops and slavery to freedom, he said.
The documented murders in Maryland include Euel (Yuel) Lee on Oct. 27, 1933, in Towson; Matthew Williams on Dec. 4, 1931, in Salisbury (see additional article below) and George Armwood on Oct. 18, 1933, in Princess Anne.
It was a unnerving to know such instances actually occurred close to home, said teacher Mary K. Davis.
"Because we had lynchings on the Shore, these are things Congress needs to consider," Kotlowski said.
The U.S. Senate passed a formal apology June 13 for the government's outright negligence to stop the inhumane practice during the lynching era.
"There is a need that we have to take (this information) back to our classrooms. ... Maybe there really are issues we need to deal with in the past," said teacher Mary Freistat.
The teachers' previous and future lesson plans can be viewed at www.wcboe.org/tah.
Reach Monique Lewis at 410-845-4656 or mlewis@salisbury.gannett.com.
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Originally published July 12, 2005 in The Daily Times
Race and Mob Violence: The Matthew Williams Case
On December 4, 1931, Matthew Williams, a 35-year old African American, shot and killed his employer, Daniel J. Elliott, a prominent Salisbury lumber dealer, over a long-standing dispute concerning Williams' wages. After shooting Elliott, Williams tried to commit suicide, but failed and was shot by Elliott's son while trying to escape. Williams was taken to Peninsula General Hospital and placed under guard.
Later that evening, a large mob formed in the center of town and marched to the hospital. After tricking Williams' guards, members of the mob dragged him out of a hospital window, paraded the struggling man through the streets of Salisbury to the small green in front of the county court house. There, Williams was hung from a tall maple tree in the court house yard. As the crowd continued to grow, William's body was cut down from the tree, dragged to a nearby lot, and set ablazed. One eyewitness described the scene as follows:
We were in the fight club and several hundred persons were waiting for the first bout.... Suddenly the word came that they were lynching Williams. There was a stampede for the doors. I drove my car a distance of about a mile and a half to the courthouse green and they had just cut the negro down. As I walked around the courthouse here came the leaders, carrying the body along. As they stepped out into the street they let it drop and then dragged it by the rope down through the negro part of town. Later I saw the fire, but didn't want to go down there. We went back to the fight... And some of the fighters didn't show up and only about half the crowd. It was a quiet and orderly mob. I saw no drunks. There were many women.
Governor Albert Ritchie and Attorney General William Preston Lane were under tremendous pressure to identify and bring the mob leaders to justice. Newspaper reports indicate that local residents who witnessed the lynching refused to identify the men, even as they eagerly related gruesome details of the crime.
The story was carried by newspapers across the country. Within Maryland, newspaper coverage illustrated the underlying cultural conflict between the urbanized Western Shore and the rural Eastern Shore. Although all Maryland newspapers condemned the lynching, Baltimore newspapers in particular viewed the mob action as a sign of a degenerating character common to Eastern Shore residents. The conflict was so inflamed by an editorial published in the Baltimore Sun by H. L. Mencken -- who, among other things, suggested that the mob leaders were well known to local law enforcement officers -- that prominent Salisbury residents advocated a boycott of the newspaper and the former town mayor demanded that Mencken and editors of the Sun and Evening Sun be subpoenaed before the coroner's jury as witnesses.
Despite the number of people who witnessed the lynching, police investigating the crime were unable to identify the ringleaders and no arrests were made. Although the Wicomico County grand jury examined 128 witneses, their final report indicated that there was "absolutely no evidence that can remotely connect anyone with the investigation or perpetration of the murder" of Matthew Williams. With that, the case was closed and no further action was taken.
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