Judge Lynch’s Court

Racial Terror in Maryland During the Age of Jim Crow, 1854 - 1933

A postcard depicting the lynching of James Reed in Crisfield, Maryland (1907).
"Lynchings on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore: James Reed, 1907,"
Salisbury University Libraries

"Thomas Juricks came to his death by hanging by some person or persons unknown..."

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Coroner's Inquest) 1869, Thomas Juricks [MSA C1225].

Duffy, Edmund. "Maryland, My Maryland!" Lithographic [1931]. Courtesy of the NMAAHC.

On October 12, 1869, mob lynched Thomas Juricks in Prince George's County. They accused him of assaulting a white woman despite being unable to supply witnesses to the alleged crime. Juricks, a husband and a father of six children, was one of four known men lynched in Prince George's County between 1869 and 1894. Like Juricks, the other three men — John Henry Scott (1875), Michael Green (1878), and Stephen Williams (1894) — were accused of assault or rape of a white woman. A coroner's jury was sent to cut Juricks down two hours after his murder. They declared that Juricks had died "from hanging by some person or persons unknown." Some local judges condemned the act of mob violence. Other members of the community, including members of the press, declared that "the circumstances of this case justify, as fully as any could, the action of the community."

Lynching occured across the state of Maryland: from the Eastern Shore to the southern tidewater to the western piedmont; in urban centers and rural settings. Between 1854 to 1933 — this project's primary period of focus — predominantly white male mobs inflicted public acts of racial terror and murder upon Black Marylanders. The chaos created by mob violence sometimes ricocheted violence upon Black bystanders, some of them children.

"Judge Lynch's Court" began in 2004 and provided the foundation upon which the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission (MLTRC) was established in 2019. Today, the project builds upon the completed work of the MLTRC (2019-2025), whose research and outreach resulted in a 630-page comprehensive report on lynching in Maryland published in December 2025. The Legacy of Slavery in Maryland strives to continue uncovering instances of racial terror in Maryland and understanding their histories. To read the report of the MLTRC, click here.