Our 2024 racial justice essay and creative arts contest for high school students opens for submissions on 12/1/2023.
For detailed information on our 2024 Racial Justice Essay & Creative Arts Contest, including how to upload submissions, visit: https://pgclmp.org/racial-justice-contest/.
This contest is for Prince George’s County Public School students (including those that are Home Schooled) only.
If you have questions or suggestions, or need additional information about the contest, please contact Lula at lulabeatty@verizon.net.
The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project is honored and excited to congratulate the winners of our 2023 Racial Justice Essay and Creative Arts contest. Each of our nine award winners is a Prince George’s County high school public, private, or homeschooled student.
Winners Jessica Kennerly, A’nya Vest, Ismael Mercado Cruz, Tami Ademumo, Amber Ware, Dorothy Quanteh, Bria Pruden and Carissa Nwabueze pose with Greenbelt Mayor Emmet Jordan at the awards ceremony.
The students were celebrated at an awards program attended by their families, friends, teachers, and community members held at the Greenbelt Community Center on June 17, 2023. Students presented their essays, creative writing, and artwork to audience applause. We thank the Greenbelt Black History & Culture Committee, Greenbelt Recreation Department, and the City of Greenbelt for sponsoring our awards ceremony and Greenbelt Access Television for recording the ceremony.
Student winners received certificates and scholarship money for their future educational pursuits. In addition, winners were invited to attend the Hurston/Wright Foundation Summer Writer’s Workshop at Howard University. We are grateful for the donations from community individuals and organizations that made the scholarships possible. We commend all students who entered their justice reflections in our contest.
PGCLMP Co-Secretary Lula Beatty calls the names of the four documented lynching victims.Bria Pruden, a student from Suitland High School, and the 3rd place visual arts contest entry.First place essay contest winner Tami Ademumo of Frederick Douglass High SchoolAudience members listen to Sherri Arnold
A full list of this year’s winners can be found below.
Did you miss our community remembrance ceremony for Thomas Juricks? Did you attend and want to relive the reverent, special time? Are you looking to see how a similar event for your own community might be structured?
We thank our partners at the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (and its founder and director Will Schwartz) for capturing the ceremony in full. Watch below.
On March 11, 2023, members of the Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project, the Chapel Hill Citizen Association, and youth volunteers and their mentors from Union Bethel Church gathered at the lot adjoining Grace United Methodist Church in Fort Washington to collect soil in remembrance of the life and tragic death of Thomas Juricks, at the approximate site of his death. On October 12, 1869, Juricks became the victim of a racial terror lynching in Piscataway; he is the earliest known victim in Prince George’s County.
On April 15, 2023, over 200 county residents, PGCLMP volunteers, political leaders, and others gathered at Harmony Hall Regional Center to tell the truth of this historic tragedy, memorialize Mr. Juricks and give him the home-going he has always deserved, and dream together of how we can advance toward a future where the lingering affects of racial terror lynchings give way to true progress and equality for all.
Please enjoy this video compilation of some images from this meaningful event, created by PGCLMP member and co-secretary Katie Pugliese.
Thank you to everyone who made our Soil Collection a huge success.
We are still celebrating the packed house (200 seats); the talented chorus, soloist, dancer, and poet from local high schools; evocative adult poet and soloist; our moving speakers; the support of the staffs of Prince George’s County Parks’ Black History Program and Harmony Hall; and the reverent participation by so many in the soil collection ceremony to honor Mr. Juricks, led by Chapel Hill residents and students who built the Memorial Carts and dug up the soil in nearby Chapel Hill. Mr. Thomas Juricks will never again be forgotten!
We wanted to share with everyone links to the digital version of the beautiful and history-packed Printed Program for the event and to our media coverage:
The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project’sfirst Community Remembrance event which will honor Mr. Thomas Juricks, the first known victim of a racial terror lynching in Prince George’s County. We hope to see you there! The event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required: https://bit.ly/TJuricks2023.
The event will be held on Saturday, April 15th, 2023 at the Harmony Hall Arts Center in Fort Washington.
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Local History Remembered:
Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project (PGC LMP)
to Honor County’s Earliest Known Lynching Victim
Event: Community Remembrance for Mr. Thomas Juricks
Date: Saturday, April 15, 2023
Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Location: Harmony Hall Arts Center in the Harmony Hall Regional Center, 10701 Livingston Road, Fort Washington, MD
This moving program will tell the story of Mr. Thomas Juricks, a Black laborer and farmhand who lived with his family in the Piscataway area near Fort Washington and was extrajudicially murdered by a masked mob of White men on October 12, 1869. The historical aspects of his life and tragic lynching will be paired with a long overdue send-off for Mr. Juricks that will acknowledge and honor him through a libation ceremony, soil collection, music, poetry and dance. Students of several local schools will be performing. Opportunities will be provided to the entire community to reflect and acknowledge that his life mattered and understand how this violent history reverberates into present-day issues such as white supremacy, mass incarceration and educational disparities between races.
“It has been our honor to collaborate with the Chapel Hill community of Fort Washington in researching the history of the lynching that took place there and in presenting what we hope will meaningfully honor the life taken and commit us all to the cause of racial justice in Prince George’s County,” stated the PGC LMP Co-Chairs Crystal Carpenter, Rev. Diane Teichert, and Krystina Tucker.
PGC LMP is a registered non-profit, all-volunteer organization affiliated with Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MDLMP). Its mission is to educate the public on the truths of our nation’s continuing legacy of the institution of slavery and its impact on enslaved persons and their descendants, memorialize victims of racial terror lynchings in our county, and advance the cause of racial justice and reconciliation through mutual support and collaboration.
The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project is holding a two-part discussion of the book, “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America” by Richard Rothstein on Tuesday, February 7 and Tuesday, February 21, from 7:00-8:30 pm.
Come join us for an invigorating discussion with special guests joining to provide commentary and perspectives on how lessons from this book are evident in Prince George’s County.
We’ve posted a new video on our Videos & Resources page to talk about the why – why we look back at history to explain and understand what is happening now. Why the story of Thomas Juricks? What can we learn from history? What can we gain by addressing these horrific events in the present?
The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project is honored and excited to congratulate the winners of our racial justice essay contest and our racial justice creative arts contest. Each of our winners is a student at a high school in Prince George’s County.
Chelsea Nelson, from left, Chase Matthews, Kai Lampley, Anise Lampley, Miso Abitria, Aleila Rankin, and Diana Osuji (on behalf of Stephanie Osuji) accepted their awards from Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan (back center).
Members of our coalition celebrated the winners and their families at two county Juneteeth events: a display table at the county Parks and Recreation Department festival and an awards ceremony held at the Greenbelt Community Center. It was great for us to gather in person after a long pandemic season of meeting virtually, and it was even better to hear from the talented students who took part in our contests.
Diana Osuji shares a moment of joy with Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan, left, and PGC LMP member Dr. Lois Rosado.Miso Abitria, a student at Charles Herbert Flowers High School, reads from her 3rd place essay. PGC LMP member Pat Neal talks with attendees at the award ceremony as she staffs the information booth.PGC LMP Co-Secretary Lula Beatty gives remarks at the awards ceremony.More photos are available on our Facebook page!
Thanks go to the city of Greenbelt for providing space for us to host our awards ceremony and to Greenbelt Access Television (GATe) for broadcasting and recording the ceremony; to our sponsor of the essay contest, the Equal Justice Initiative; and to the co-sponsors of our creative arts contest, the Prince George’s County NAACP chapter and Joe’s Movement Emporium; and to our guest judges from the community who selected our winners.
Thank you as well to each of the students who entered these contests. Congratulations to the following students who were selected as winners. They received an award plaque or certificate as well as scholarship money for their future educational pursuits.
Essay Contest Winners
Name
Award
School
Stephanie Osuji
1st Place
Eleanor Roosevelt High School
Alyssa Liverman
2nd Place
Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School
Miso Abitria
3rd Place
Charles Herbert Flowers High School
Aleila Rankin
3rd Place
Oxon Hill High School
Ji’Mie Womack
Honorable Mention
Charles Herbert Flowers High School
Blessing Nwoke
Honorable Mention
Eleanor Roosevelt High School
Creative Arts Contest Winners
Name/Title of Submission
Award/Category
School
Anise Lampley “Perennial Prejudice”
1st place: Creative Writing
Oxon Hill High School
Chase Matthews “Hoodie”
2nd place: Creative Writing
Home-schooled
Kai Lampley “The Tree of Cain”
3rd place: Creative Writing
Oxon Hill High School
Chisom Amaikwu “When Race Clashes with Police”
Honorable Mention: Creative Writing
Academy of Health Sciences: Prince George’s County Community College
Nadia McCall “Gentrified”
1st place: Visual Arts
Charles Herbert Flowers High School
Richard Martin “Lynching”
2nd place: Visual Arts
Laurel High School
Seanna Harper “Her Life Mattered”
3rd place: Visual Arts
Chesapeake Math and IT (CMIT) North
Momdjo Ashuakpa Windioscars Mbi “Environmental Racism”
Honorable Mention: Visual Arts
Central High School
David Ingram “Justice”
1st place: Spoken Word
Charles Herbert Flowers High School
Chelsea Nelson “Black Baby’s First Misrepresentation”
In this exclusive video, we invite you to understand history that is often not told – the story of a lynching in one of our Prince George’s County communities. Watch this presentation shared at a local library.
It also explains the necessity to tell this buried story from our past while learning about the PGCLMP and how you can get involved in their work around truth, reconciliation, and healing.
