history

2023 Racial Justice Essay and Creative Arts Contest Winners

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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.

To watch a recording of the full awards ceremony, click here: https://youtu.be/vLOChpcgv0A

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 School
Audience members listen to Sherri Arnold

A full list of this year’s winners can be found below.

Essay and Creative Writing Winners
Tami Ademumo1st PlaceFrederick Douglass High School
Dorothy Quanteh2nd PlaceCharles Herbert Flowers High School
Jessica Kennerly3rd PlaceSuitland High School
Amber WareHonorable MentionCharles Herbert Flowers High School
Emani Rose-LouisHonorable MentionFrederick Douglass High School
Visual Arts Winners
Carissa Nwabueze1st PlaceEleanor Roosevelt High School
Ismael Mercado Cruz2nd PlaceFrederick Douglass High School
Bria Pruden3rd PlaceSuitland High School
A’nya VestHonorable MentionFrederick Douglass High School

Thomas Juricks’s Remembrance Ceremony

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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.

PGC LMP Tour of Piscataway

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The Prince George’s County Lynching Memorial Project will be hosting a tour of Piscataway sites associated with the 1869 lynching of Thomas Juricks, on Sunday, August 8, 2021, beginning at 3 p.m.

The tour has been developed by our Community Remembrance Project Committee, with one of our volunteer members using historical records and maps to identify sites associated with Mr. Juricks’s life as well as the horrific events of that day. The tour will be conducted via carpool, with vehicles traveling to the various sites and attendees gathering on roadsides to hear and discuss the history.

The tour is FREE and open to the public. We would especially love to have some of our neighbors in Piscataway and surrounding communities join us, share their stories, learn about our work, and connect with us.

We will meet at the Fort Washington Forest Community Center and leave promptly at 3 p.m., so arrive around 2:45 if possible. The tour will go until 4:30 p.m. and be followed by an optional social gathering.

We are also planning a community remembrance project for Mr. Juricks and welcome community members to be involved in all stages of that process. Contact us for more information, to give suggestions or to ask questions.

Hope to see you on August 8!

Article: Why does the Myth of the Confederate Lost Cause Persist?

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Part of our work as the PGCLMP is to name the truth.

This article from author Clint R. Smith III, an excerpt from his recent book, is featured in the upcoming issue of The Atlantic as part of their Inheritance series. He gives an overview of the Lost Cause myth that persists in the minds of many Americans and the ways the truth about slavery, Confederate monuments, and the Civil War are obscured.

Gramling then turned his attention to the present-day controversy about Confederate monuments—to the people who are “trying to take away our symbols.” In 2019, according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were nearly 2,000 Confederate monuments, place names, and other symbols in public spaces across the country. A follow-up report after last summer’s racial-justice protests found that more than 160 of those symbols had been removed or renamed in 2020.

Gramling said that this was the work of “the American ISIS.” He looked delighted as the crowd murmured its affirmation. “They are nothing better than ISIS in the Middle East. They are trying to destroy history they don’t like.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Visit to Piscataway

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CW: Brief description of a historical lynching

The 1869 lynching of Thomas Juricks became more tangible for members of the PG County Lynching Memorial Project during a January tour of four Piscataway sites connected to this horrific chapter of the county’s history.

A mob wearing handkerchiefs with eyeholes cut out lynched Juricks, who was awaiting trial after being accused on flimsy evidence of raping a white woman. He worked on a farm in Piscataway and lived nearby with his family.

During the tour led by PGCLMP member Blair Bowie, we learned more about what is believed to be the county’s first lynching, identified possible locations for a soil collection community remembrance project, considered ways to involve the local communities (Clinton and Fort Washington) and discussed areas for further research.

The tour included:

  • Old Piscataway Town, the closest town to Juricks’ home (Clinton)
  • Likely site of Thomas Juricks’ home, site roughly marked in 1878 (Fort Washington)
  • Hatton’s Hill, location of a Black schoolhouse and area where Juricks is reported to be buried (Fort Washington)
  • Chapel Hill, a thriving post Civil War African American farming community that established a Freedman’s Bureau school and meeting house. (Fort Washington)

Members of the PGCLMP were joined by representatives of The Accokeek Foundation and other interested county residents.

Photos by Karen Scrivo and Aaron Tinch

Virtual Event, The Lakeland Spirit

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Join the Lakeland Community Heritage Project, in partnership with the American Studies Department of the University of Maryland, and Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, for a virtual presentation of heritage and stories from the Lakeland community of College Park, Maryland, 1950–1980.

This is a virtual event.

Thursday, November 19, 2020 | 7- 8:30pm

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lakeland-spirit-through-digital-footprint-tickets-124933221629