8th Annual "Lynching in Maryland" Annual Conference

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MLMP) will hold its 8th Annual "Lynching in Maryland" Conference on Saturday, October 25, 2025 from 9:00am to 4:30pm at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore.

As in years past, the year's conference program presents a full day of powerful, thought-provoking, and inspiring presentations and discussions with experts, thought leaders, and artists. Speakers and attendees will consider the history and truth of racial terror lynching in Maryland, its lasting effects, and the efforts around the state to confront the truth so that healing and reconciliation might begin.

We are offering both in-person and virtual attendance. Those attending in person will be provided with morning refreshments and lunch; opportunity to purchase books written by guest speakers; and access to the Lynching in Maryland exhibit, a collaboration between the Lewis Museum and the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project. Doors open at 8:30am for networking and light breakfast. See below for additional exhibit details.

8th Annual Conference Program

Racial Pasts, Perilous Futures

Famed civil and human rights attorney and former judge, Margaret Burnham, is the founder and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice (CRRJ) Project at Northeastern University School of Law. Judge Burnham was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board and in 2022 published the acclaimed volume, By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. Civil rights icon Angela Davis said the book “needs to be read by everyone who recognizes the historic mandate of our time: to interrupt cycles of racist violence that are rooted in slavey and have repeatedly found new modes of expression, even as the unresolved old forms plague our historical memory.”

Copies of Professor Burnham's book, By Hands Now Known, will be available for purchase and signing at the conference.

Of Maryland's 38 known lynching victims, at least three were children, no more than 13-, 15-, and 18 years-old at the time of their murders. Dr. Stacey Patton will confront the often-overlooked reality of child lynchings in America and asks a haunting question: How did a nation justify the ritualized murder of its most vulnerable? Tracing the roots from medieval Europe’s culture of child cruelty, through religious doctrine, philosophical dehumanization, and generational trauma, this talk reveals how the brutalization of children laid the psychological and cultural foundation for racial violence against young people in the State of Maryland and beyond.

Dr. Patton is an award-winning journalist, child advocate, and author of multiple books, including Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America, and the forthcoming, Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children. Her reporting on issues of child welfare, race relations, and higher education has appeared in multiple outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, Al Jazeera and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She has made frequent media appearances and has won numerous journalism awards and citations.

KIN: Rooted in Hope

Award-winning mother and son duo, author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Jeffery Boston Weatherford will share their collaborative and creative partnership, one that affirms a sense of justice and joy. Listen as they converse, read, and reflect through the celebration of their 2024 publication, Kin: Rooted in Hope, the Maryland Humanities "One Maryland One Book" selection. The book is "a work of art, history, and personal genealogy – the authors’ search into their family tree led them to ancestors who were among the founders of Maryland."

Copies of books, written and illustrated by the Weatherfords, will be available for purchase and signing at the conference.

Legacies of Family Trauma

We welcome Asiyah Kurtz and Juliet Hinely for an interactive session highlighting Kurtz's short film "Strange Fruit: A Legacy of Family Trauma" and a section of Hinely's forthcoming podcast "Family Lines (working title)". The session will be facilitated by Darius Johnson.

Ms. Kurtz, an anthropologist and nonprofits arts leader, is also a self-taught quilter who has explored a variety of art forms including documentary filmmaking. She states: "My work is meant to document the tableau of the human condition and serves as both artistic expressions and ethnographic records. I desire that my art offers a space for dialogue, contemplation, and social change." Ms. Kurtz uses Billie Holiday's haunting song Strange Fruit as the film's emotional anchor. The film explores how the legacy of lynching and systemic oppression has echoed through generations of one Black family. The film is Ms. Kurtz’s initial foray into understanding narrative power and its connection to reconciliation and healing.

Ms. Hinely, a documentary artist, braids sound and story to explore narratives of place, history, relationships, and inheritance. Her work exists as site-specific audio tours, sound and sculpture installations, audio poems, and currently as long-form audio documentary. Across media, her projects aim to illuminate connections and ripple effects across time. Outside of her own work, Ms. Hinely is also a freelance story producer, sound designer, and podcast teacher. She will share a section of her forthcoming podcast, a multi-part audio documentary about learning of her family’s connection to the racial terror lynching of 15-year-old Howard Cooper that occurred in Towson, Maryland in 1885.

Mr. Johnson is a scholar-practitioner whose focus is on public history, historic preservation, community development, and philanthropy. His efforts are driven by a desire to help strengthen and sustain communities by drawing upon the intersections of cultural heritage, land use, and storytelling. Mr. Johnson is the Project Director for the Chesapeake Heartland, an African American Humanities Project whose mission is to preserve, digitize, interpret, and make accessible materials related to African American history and culture in Kent County, MD and beyond.

Facilitated by Mr. Johnson, Ms. Kurtz and Ms. Hinely will discuss their work and the use of arts for social change. The in-person audience will be invited to contribute to the conversation via interactive question and answer session.

Pause: Creativity & Liberation

Michele Blu is a trailblazing artist, healer, and entrepreneur dedicated to holistic wellness, creative expression, and cultural empowerment. She is the co-founder and owner of Baltimore’s first Black-owned and operated yoga studio and the founder of Blu Treasures Kemetic Yoga & Arts Studio. Ms. Blu creates, teaches, and inspires with a radical approach to achieving truth, liberation, and love. Through yoga, art, music, and holistic healing, she remains deeply committed to uplifting individuals and communities—bridging the past with the future through creativity and mindfulness.

Guided by Ms. Blu, conference attendees will be led through a short meditation exercise--a brief pause that highlights the importance of self care in our journey towards truth.

Public Spaces and Memorialization

Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University, Dr. Kalima Young teaches Principles of Film and Media Production and African American Cinema. She received her PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her scholarship explores the impact of race and gender-based trauma on Black identity, media, and Black cultural production. A co-convener of Invisible Architectures, which aimed to re-visibilize the place-based strategies and cultural frictions that have contributed to Towson University’s growth and development as an anchor institution in Baltimore, Dr. Young will explore an understanding of the ways that public spaces can reflect the history of racial trauma and express public and collective grief.

The MLMP plans to make an exciting announcement about a community memorial and design competition. Details to be revealed at the conference.

25 Years of Civil Rights Trips: A Panel Discussion

Since 2004, MLMP board member and Park School Upper School Principal, Traci Wright, has designed and led Civil Rights Trips through the southern United States. Annually, cohorts of high school students and chaperones fill buses leaving Baltimore to make the pilgrimage, visit historical sites, talk to Civil Rights foot soldiers, and write blogs. Over the years, participating students attended public, charter, and independent schools in the greater Baltimore area, as well as other states; and each has gone on to have different journeys. Ms. Wright will be joined by a panel of Trip alums, spanning 25 years, who will discuss the ways their experiences shaped their personal and professional lives over the ensuing years.

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project's Digital Archives Project

Now over two years old, and with more than 2,600 items, the MLMP Digital Archive has become an important resource for communities and researchers. This presentation will provide an overview of recent developments and improvements to the MLMP Digital Archive, including new item additions, search features, and browse options. Hannah Young, lead archivist, will also share updates from a recent conference discussing the possibility of a national archive and how the MLMP Digital Archive might support such efforts. Hannah will be available during the lunch break to offer further demonstrations and answer questions.

In addition to her support of the MLMP Digital Archive, Ms. Young has worked on large archival projects such as ProQuest’s Black Studies and Women and Gender database. She has her masters in Library and Information Services from Catholic University.

Recommendations and Outcomes from the MLTRC

Established in 2019, the Maryland Lynching Truth & Reconciliation Commission concluded county and regional public hearings in February 2025. We will be joined by Commissioners Nicholas Creary, PhD and Michelle Coles, JD for an early update on the Commission's recommendations and inside briefing on the final report. The report will be presented to Governor Wes Moore in December of this year. The session will include the screening of a short video highlighting moments from a few of the early hearings. The final public hearing, "Reckoning and Repair: A Public Hearing on Maryland's Legacy of Racial Terror Lynchings," was held in April 2025. Recordings of Day 1 and Day 2 are available for viewing.

Copies of Ms. Coles' book, Black Was the Ink, will be available for purchase and signing at the conference.

MLMP at the Lewis Museum: "Lynching in Maryland" Exhibit

All in-person attendees will have access to the permanent exhibit on Lynching in Maryland, created by the Lewis Museum in collaboration with the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project. Opened just one year ago, the exhibit includes video installations that are changed several times a year. Plan to spend time walking through this important Maryland space.

Support

The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project is committed to providing accessible, low-cost educational and community experiences for conference attendees. Funds generated through ticket sales and tax deductible contributions directly support programming expenses. Thank you for your support.