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Memorial marker to be revealed for 15-year-old hung near Towson jail 130 years ago

May 8th, 2021 by WCBC Radio

A memorial marker will be revealed Saturday near Towson jail for 15-year-old Howard Cooper, a Black teen who was lynched there over 130 years ago. In 1885, Cooper was dragged from his jail cell by over 70 masked white men and hanged from a sycamore tree next to the building. He was convicted by an all-white jury of raping a white teenage girl, but according to the Baltimore Sun, neither she nor Cooper testified that she was raped.

The ceremony to unveil the marker starts at 11 a.m. Saturday morning.

Historians say at least 40 Black people were lynched in Maryland between 1854 and 1933.