Old Darkness / Under a New Moon

George Armwood, a 19-year-old Black man, was lynched in Princess Anne, Maryland, on October 18, 1933, in one of the most brutal racially motivated killings in the state’s history. The mob violence followed accusations—later proven false—that Armwood had assaulted a white woman. His death was part of a long and shameful pattern of lynching in the United States, particularly in the Jim Crow South, where racial terror was used to enforce white supremacy. The lynching of George Armwood in Somerset County, Maryland, remains a deeply painful chapter in the state’s past and a stark reminder of the systemic racism that persisted well into the 20th century.

The killing began after a woman in Princess Anne claimed she had been attacked by a Black man. Though no evidence linked Armwood to the crime, local authorities failed to intervene as a white mob formed. Armwood, described by witnesses as a young man of slight build, was dragged from his home, beaten, and then hanged from a tree near the town center. After death, his body was mutilated: his ears were cut off, and his corpse was set ablaze. The horrific act was carried out in broad daylight, drawing a crowd that celebrated the violence. Photographs of Armwood’s charred body circulated in newspapers, spreading terror through Black communities across the region.

The lynching of George Armwood was not an isolated incident. Between 1882 and 1968, Maryland recorded at least 24 lynchings, with Somerset County being one of the most active sites of racial violence in the state. The NAACP and local Black leaders condemned the killing and demanded justice, but no one was ever held accountable. In many Southern states, including Maryland, lynching was a tool of social control, used to punish Black individuals for perceived transgressions—whether real or imagined—against white authority.

Historians and civil rights advocates have since documented the full scope of racial terror lynchings in America. The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) launched the Lynching in America project in 2015, which identified over 4,000 lynchings of Black people between 1877 and 1950. Maryland, though often overlooked in national discussions, was not exempt from this violence. The case of George Armwood highlights how lynching was not just an act of individual cruelty but a coordinated strategy to maintain white dominance.

Today, the story of George Armwood is taught in some Maryland schools as part of local civil rights history. Monuments and historical markers have been proposed to memorialize lynching victims, though progress has been slow. The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, founded in 2017, works to document and remember victims like Armwood, advocating for remembrance and reconciliation.

The legacy of racial terror in Princess Anne and Somerset County endures. The lynching of George Armwood serves as a grim reminder of the deep roots of racism in America and the long road toward justice.

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