Lynching in America / Lynching in Wicomico County

Marker Text: Between 1898 and 1931, at least three Black men were victims of racial terror lynchings near this courthouse. On May 26, 1898, a mob of over 100 white people lynched Garfield King, a Black teenager who lived near present-day Allen, MD. Garfield was being held in the Salisbury Jail after an alleged altercation with a white man outside of Twigg’s Store. The mob kidnapped Garfield and hanged him from a nearby maple tree before riddling his body with at least 50 bullets. On December 4, 1931, a white mob lynched Matthew “Buddie” Williams, a 23-year-old Black man recovering from gunshot wounds at Peninsula General Hospital following an altercation with his white employer. Without resistance from hospital staff, the mob kidnapped Mr. William from his bed and dragged him to the courthouse lawn where he was beaten, stabbed, and hanged. The mob set Mr. Williams on fire and dragged his charred remains through Salisbury’s Black community as a reminder of the lethal racial order. Days later, on the morning of December 6, the body of an unidentified 33-year-old Black man was found beaten to death near a railroad track in Salisbury. Evidence indicates the man was killed by the same mob that lynched Mr. Williams just hours before. During this era, a strict racial hierarchy prevailed in Wicomico County that enabled white people to lynch and terrorize Black people with impunity. No one was held accountable for the lynchings of these three men.