Howard Cooper was just 15 when he was lynched at the Towson jail in 1885. Historians say the mob feared the Supreme Court would void his conviction by an all-white jury … for assault of a white girl.

Why will the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission hold a hearing tomorrow on Cooper’s murder? Commission vice chair Charles Chavis says the pattern of racial terror … stretches to ten African-Americans gunned down in Buffalo, New York this month.

“We have to recognize the importance of valuing and validating the historical trauma and the truths that Black communities have suffered. And we have to recognize that these are not one-offs, anomalies; this is a part of a legacy and a system.”

Links: Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, MLTRC Hearing for Howard Cooper, MLMP Howard Cooper Project, Outrage in Rockland: The Lynching of Howard Cooper video.

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