2022 Baltimore County Community Outreach Forum

The Baltimore County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project is holding its 3rd Annual Community Outreach Forum on Saturday, January 22, 2022 from 10a to 12p. The event is all virtual.

This past year was an important one for our coalition. In May, in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative, we held a ceremony to install an EJI historical marker to memorialize the1885 lynching of Howard Cooper in Towson. The ceremony was attended by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Attorney General Brian Frosh, House Speaker Adrienne Jones, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski, Jr. and EJI Project Manager Elliot Spillers, all of whom addressed the assembled crowd. Additionally, winners of the EJI Racial Justice Essay Contest were recognized and the winning essay was read.

While important in its own right, the marker installation ceremony signals a promise from the Baltimore County Coalition to continue its efforts to advance the cause of racial healing and reconciliation in our County and in the nation. The Annual Community Outreach Forum is one way we promote that work as we invite others to join the coalition.

This year, we're thrilled to be welcoming these guest speakers:

• Rev. Dr. Alvin Hathaway served as the 10th Pastor of historic Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, the same institution led by Rev. Harvey Johnson who played an critical role in the short life of Howard Cooper. In 1885 (just weeks before Cooper's lynching) Rev. Johnson founded the United Brotherhood of Liberty, one of the first civil rights organizations in the nation and a precursor to the NAACP. Dr. Hathaway is an expert on the life of Rev. Johnson and will discuss the role of the church and Rev. Johnson in advancing civil rights in Baltimore.

• Dr. Elyshia Aseltine is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Towson University and recipient of the Martha A. Mitten Professorship. Her research focuses on racial disparities in response to, and punishment of, crime. Dr. Aseltine will discuss the connection between racial terror lynching, over-policing and mass incarceration.
  
  
• Dr. Kalima Young is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University where she has created a project known as Invisible Architectures, a “multi-year, interdisciplinary container designed to create avenues for projects and programs that reinscribe the voices of Black, brown, indigenous, and immigrant populations in the narrative of Towson University’s origin story." An important element of the project is understanding how public spaces can reflect the history of racial trauma and express public and collective grief.

In addition to these presentations, the program will include a poetry reading about the Howard Cooper lynching by a Baltimore County middle school student as well as updates on the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Park, a concept for a "Freedom Trail" connecting the Ridgely Estate (Hampton Mansion) with Historic East Towson, the Black community founded in the 1850s by people who were formerly enslaved at the Ridgely Estate.

Finally, we will discuss preparations for the Baltimore County public hearing to be held on June 4, 2022 by the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Admission to the forum is free but registration is required. A link to the program will be sent to all registrants 24 hours before the event.