Lynching Commission says Maryland Authorities and Agencies were Complicit in ‘Racial Terror,’ Officially Niggerized Blacks between 1854 and 1933

From [HERE] 38. That's the number of unresolved murder cases Maryland’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has documented in its final report.

Lawmakers created the commission six years ago to research Maryland’s history of racial terror through lynching between 1854 and 1933.

The work is now complete, and the board has sent 84 recommendations to the General Assembly aimed at repairing the harm caused by these killings.

Commissioner Nicholas Creary spoke about the findings and why the work matters. The transcript below has been edited for clarity and length.

KAMAU: Nicholas, how did you first get pulled into this work? What drew you to this history, and how did that lead to your role on the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

CREARY: It actually started as a research project with students when I was teaching at Bowie State University. We were surprised to see there was a racial terror lynching in Prince George's County, not far from campus. We went through that and saw the numbers of of racial terror lynchings that occurred across the state. I began thinking about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And thought, ‘What would something like that look like if we were to do that here in Maryland? ’