About 250 people from around Montgomery County...
...came to Poolesville yesterday to dedicate the new historical marker remembering the 1880 lynching of 22-year-old George W. Peck.
Speakers included the Rev. Chuck Copeland, a descendent and resident of the Martinsburg community in Dickerson, MD, and Ed Reed, Poolesville Town Commissioner. Marc Erlich, read a proclamation that included the text that as Montgomery County Executive,
I...proclaim October 22, 2023 A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE AND RECONCILIATION TO HONOR GEORGE WASHINGTON PECK. A HISTORIC MARKER IS PLACED IN HIS HONOR AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all residents of Montgomery County are encouraged to join me in acknowledging this important historic event and work together to understand, repair and heal the damages of the past by demonstrating a positive, responsible willingness to build a better future for all people.
Following remarks by our partners, Will Schwarz of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project and Sumita Rajpurohit of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, the audience paid its respects to the field across from the church where the lynching is believed to have happened, where the soil collection jar for Mr. Peck was placed.
We then adjourned to a reception hosted by Locals Farm Market, visiting tables hosted by our partners and friends at at MDLMP, Montgomery History, and the local historic Black communities of Jerusalem, Sugarland, Martinsburg, Emory Grove, Pleasant View, Haiti, and Sandy Spring. We're grateful to all the volunteers who helped create and produce this historic day, and to all our visitors who stopped by to tell us how meaningful the day had been for them.
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