Maryland Releases Report on 38 Lynchings, Seeks Healing

Maryland just took a major step toward healing one of its darkest chapters, releasing a comprehensive report that documents decades of racial terror and offers concrete paths forward.

The Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission submitted its final findings in December 2025 after more than six years of work. Created by state legislation in 2019, the commission documented 38 confirmed lynchings of Black men and boys that occurred between 1854 and 1933.

The report reveals how institutions failed victims and their families. Law enforcement, courts, elected officials, and media allowed racial violence to go unpunished, creating a climate where white supremacy thrived through terror.

Over its mandate, the commission held 14 public hearings across Maryland. Researchers gathered oral histories, archival records, and testimonies from descendants and community members, ultimately producing a hundreds of pages document with detailed case histories and analysis.

The commission didn't stop at documentation. It proposed 84 specific recommendations for repairing harm and fostering reconciliation, ranging from establishing memorials to integrating lynching history into school curricula.

Some proposals are more substantial. The report suggests $100,000 payments to descendants of lynching victims and $10,000 to descendants of people who lived in terrorized communities.

The Ripple Effect

Maryland's effort builds on momentum from across the nation as states confront histories of racial violence. In 2021, then-Governor Larry Hogan granted posthumous pardons to lynching victims in what was described as the first systematic state pardons of their kind.

Communities are already engaging with this history. St. Mary's County dedicated a historical marker to Benjamin Hance, a Black man lynched in Leonardtown in 1887, as part of ongoing local education efforts.

Advocates for racial justice praised the emphasis on truth-telling as essential groundwork for healing. While some lawmakers have raised questions about the cost and logistics of reparations, the conversation itself represents progress.

As the General Assembly prepares to consider turning recommendations into policy this year, descendants and communities affected by racial terror finally see their stories acknowledged. The report offers Maryland a chance to move from painful truth to meaningful action.