Two years ago, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture announced that Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen had secured $650,000 in federal funds allowing the Museum to create a permanent exhibit on the history of lynching in Maryland. The exhibit is in partnership with the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project.
According to the museum, “The exhibit will contextualize the emergence and practice of racial terror as a tool for enforcing white supremacy, particularly as a response to emancipation. It will examine the origins of lynching in the US, modes of Black resistance and survival and how lynchings were covered – and often encouraged – in the press. Additionally, legislative, judicial and other historic public responses to domestic terror will be considered, with a focus on Maryland.”
The centerpiece of the exhibit will be a display of vessels containing soil collected from lynching sites all over the state. The vessels will be placed in front of a wall-sized map of Maryland. When a visitor touches the nameplate in front of any vessel it will activate a projection with information about the individual’s life and death which will appear on the map. A vessel of soil from the lynching site of Benjamin Hance, St. Mary’s County will be part of the exhibit.
The Museum issued a Request for Proposals to design and build the exhibit and Quatrefoil, Inc, a design firm based on Columbia, MD, was awarded the contract. The design has been approved. Now the work will focus on the installation of the exhibit.
The Lewis Museum is forecasting a September 2024 opening for the exhibit. Updates and details will be provided here.
More about Benjamin Hance
Benjamin Hance was a young Black man who was killed by a white mob in Leonardtown before having the chance to stand trial for an alleged crime he was never convicted of. He is the only documented lynching victim in St. Mary’s County history. An exhibit about his account can be seen inside the Old Jail Museum in the very cell he was held before being killed. The Benjamin Hance Lynching Memorial Marker stands on the grounds outside of the jail. The marker memorializes his life and the story.
