Apology and Acknowledgement of the State's Responsibility in Racial Terror Lynchings

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SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 3
P5 6lr2931
CF HJ 8
By: Senators Sydnor and Augustine
Introduced and read first time: February 6, 2026
Assigned to: Education, Energy, and the Environment

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning 1

Apology and Acknowledgement of the State’s Responsibility in Racial Terror 2
Lynchings 3

FOR the purpose of issuing an apology and acknowledging the State’s complicity and 4
negligence in allowing the perpetration of acts of racial terror lynching; committing 5
to taking reparative actions as recommended by the Maryland Lynching Truth and 6
Reconciliation Commission; and generally relating to racial terror lynchings in the 7
State. 8

WHEREAS, In Chapter 41 of the Acts of the General Assembly of 2019, the General 9
Assembly authorized the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission to 10
research cases of racial terror lynching and to make recommendations “for addressing the 11
legacy of lynching that are rooted in the spirit of restorative justice”; and 12

WHEREAS, The Commission recommended that “the Maryland General Assembly 13
issue an apology and acknowledgment of responsibility” for its complicity and negligence 14
in allowing the perpetration of acts of racial terror lynching; and 15

WHEREAS, Between 1854 and 1933, there were 38 documented cases of racial terror 16
lynching in the State; and 17

WHEREAS, No one was ever held accountable for the commission of these crimes; 18
and 19

WHEREAS, Various State, county, and local government entities colluded in the 20
commission of these crimes and conspired to conceal the identities of the parties involved; 21
and 22

WHEREAS, The State failed to protect Black people who descend from U.S. chattel 23
slavery from being forcibly taken by lynch mobs and murdered without due process; and 24

WHEREAS, The State failed to pass anti–lynching legislation in 1898 and 1933; and 25
2 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 3

WHEREAS, The only formal apology for a racial terror lynching in the State was 1
issued by the State’s Attorney for Calvert County at the Commission’s hearing for Southern 2
Maryland; now, therefore, be it 3

RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, That the State 4
apologizes for: 5

(1) its role in the murder of each victim in the 38 cases of documented racial 6
terror lynchings, any additional racial terror lynchings that have yet to be discovered, and 7
any attempted racial terror lynchings; 8

(2) failing to provide Black Marylanders with equal protection and due 9
process under the law in violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; 10

(3) dehumanizing Black Marylanders by violating their privileges and 11
immunities of citizenship through the enforcement of racially discriminatory laws in 12
violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; 13

(4) its role in facilitating racial terror lynchings in the State; 14

(5) conspiring and colluding with State, county, and local government 15
entities to conceal the identities of the parties involved in these crimes; 16

(6) taking the tax dollars of Black Marylanders while not providing equal 17
protection under the law, voting rights, in violation of the 15th Amendment of the U.S. 18
Constitution, or equal representation in government; 19

(7) the breakdown in trust between many Black Marylanders and law 20
enforcement and other governmental entities as a result of racial terror lynchings; 21

(8) failing to hold perpetrators of racial terror lynchings accountable 22
through State inaction constituting tacit approval of the actions of the perpetrators and 23
contributing to their sense of impunity; 24

(9) failing to pass anti–lynching legislation in 1898 and 1933; 25

(10) the destruction of the health, wealth , and sacred cultural heritage 26
spaces of the Black community, such as ancestral burial grounds and Black settlements, 27
that resulted from racial terror lynchings and de jure and de facto racial segregation; 28

(11) its role in contributing to the separation of Black families during 29
enslavement, through its support of the Maryland Colonization Society and the American 30
Colonization Society, through its enactment of de jure Jim Crow segregation, and through 31
mass incarceration, all of which contributed to the dehumanization of Black Marylanders; 32
and 33

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 3 3

(12) contributing to the erasure of racial terror lynchings from public 1
memory; and be it further 2

RESOLVED, That the State recognizes, despite its many failings, the resilience and 3
persistence of Black families a nd communities in Maryland that have been harmed by 4
racial terror lynchings and their enduring legacies; and be it further 5

RESOLVED, That the State commits to taking reparative actions as recommended 6
by the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, including the prevention 7
of the recurrence of racially motivated harms; and be it further 8

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be forwarded by the Department of 9
Legislative Services to the Governor of Maryland; the President of the Senate of Maryland; 10
and the Speaker of the House of Delegates. 11