Remembering is Resistance: Take Action with Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project - In-person

An Equal Justice Initiative Community Remembrance Project

Join us to learn about MoCoLMP and how you can make your voice heard in your community and schools through MoCoLMP's mission to promote truth, remembrance, reconciliation, and reckoning in the County.

Noah Agboyibor and Derrick C. Tabor of the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project invite everyone - especially young people in Montgomery County who are interested in making your voice heard in your community and schools - to come learn more about what we do. Join us in a conversation circle and learn how young residents of the County have taken action with us for our mission, to bring awareness and public recognition of our history since the founding of Montgomery County 250 years ago, including the resilience, vibrancy, and strength of our African American communities, and to promote truth, remembrance, reconciliation, and reckoning in Montgomery County, Maryland. Only by facing our past can we move toward a more equitable and just society.

This special event will take place in the 3rd Floor Meeting Room. Snacks and SSL will be available to participants - earn SSL from the library by helping design future library programs and assisting with cleanup and takedown.

The Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project (MoCoLMP) is a grassroots organization established in 2017 and a designated Community Remembrance Project of the Equal Justice Initiative. Originally formed to organize soil collections and install historical markers at the three known sites of lynchings in Montgomery County, MoCoLMP seeks to educate and engage communities about our history and the legacy of slavery, racial violence, racial terror lynching and systemic racism by promoting truth, remembrance, reconciliation, and reckoning in Montgomery County, MD. MoCoLMP pledges to continue researching and sharing this critical history as a way of strengthening community, deepening knowledge and fostering understanding.

MoCoLMP projects and committees include the following:

Mapping Our Historic Black Communities, Sites of Enslavement, and the Enslaved
Long-term goal: Learn and share more about the histories of Montgomery County's Black communities.

Project tasks: Publish an interactive map that includes:​

sites of enslavement in Montgomery County between 1860-65 
names of the enslaved claimed by the enslavers, as we identify those names
sites of historic Black communities (HBCs) in the county, including those founded before the Civil War, during Reconstruction, and during Jim Crow (1800-1940 or so)

Update maps of historic Black communities in Montgomery County. 
Research these communities—particularly the ones with less current or more scattered documentation—and tell their story. 
Document any connections between people who were enslaved and the historic Black communities in the county.
Collect and publish the names of HBCs’ founding and significant families. We will work with members of the descendant community to confirm these names.
sites of the three documented racial terror lynchings in the county, and 
locations that saw regular trafficking of enslaved persons.

Each site on the map will have pop-up information on each enslavement site (including any names of those enslaved between 1860-1865) and each HBC. The historic community site pop-ups will link to our website, where there will be additional information as it is documented. The focus of the map is to show the number and variety of enslavers during this time period, the number and variety of historic communities in the county, and the links between the enslavers and HBCs.

Oral History Project
Interview descendants of historic Black communities in Montgomery County about their memories of these communities and their history, from their founding through the Jim Crow era. We will continue to produce videos from a variety of descendants and post them on MoCoLMP’s YouTube page, website and social media, to help fill out the history of our county’s HBCs.

Racial Covenants Project  
Many residences in Montgomery County have deeds with [now illegal] covenants banning Black people, Jewish people, or other groups from living there. This project will teach homeowners how to delete this language.

Education Committee
Leads outreach efforts to teachers and students in public and private schools in the County. It implemented a successful Racial Justice Essay Contest for high school students, with the support of the Equal Justice Initiative. The committee conducts workshops on how to teach difficult history and how to incorporate this history into literature and poetry instruction. It also recruit students to volunteer at MoCoLMP events.

Communications Committee
Creates the member newsletter, updates the website, and posts to social media. It also conducts media outreach and publicity efforts for major events.

Looking for more things to do at MCPL? Meet Montgomery College at MC's Outreach Information Table on Wednesday, March 25th at McGee Library. Drop by and learn what Montgomery College has to offer: how to find financial aid to pay for college, help with the application process, class registration, placement tests, Dual Enrollment, youth programs for teens and children, degrees and certificates including the biotechnology AAS degree and certificates, trade programs such as Heating and Air Conditioning, electrical, and carpentry programs, adult ESOL classes, Information Technology classes, Lifelong Learning programs, workforce development, the East County Education Center and much more. Montgomery College Office of Community Engagement will answer your questions in the 3rd Floor lobby at McGee Library.

Questions about this program? Contact Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library at 240-773-9420.

Don't have a card right now? No worries! Find out how to Get a Library Card.

Library Program Attendance (both virtual and in the branch) is limited to participants within the suggested age range of the program. Children attending an MCPL program under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult. Adults attending a program intended for children must have an accompanying child.

If you plan to attend with a group of ten or more, please contact the branch at least one week before the program to discuss how your group might be accommodated.

Accommodation Requests

People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing should request English-language captioning or sign-language interpretation at least five days before the library-sponsored program they plan to attend. Contact the Assistant Facilities and Accessibility Program Manager at 240-777-0002 with all other accommodation requests.

cm 1.1 01/03/2023

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