On Saturday, August 28, 2021, the Allegany County Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Committee and The Brownsville Project in partnership with the Allegany County NAACP #7007 and the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project gathered with descendants of Robert Hughes and Jesse Page to honor the life of Robert Hughes, also known as William Burns and to dedicate a historical marker created as part of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Historical Marker Project.
Robert Hughes came to Cumberland in 1907 and went by the name William Burns. The night prior to his lynching he was accompanied in town by a local named Jesse Page, whose life was also altered by the racial terror enacted.
After descendants of both Hughes and Page toured Cumberland sites related to the lynching, guests met outside Emmanuel Episcopal Church for a service to honor Hughes’ life in a way previously denied his family due to his lynching and private burial in an unmarked grave at Sumner Cemetery.
Clory Jackson, a founder and leader of The Brownsville Project and ACLTRC welcomes descendants in front of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
Hughes family descendants spoke about their family and uncle, Robert Hughes.
Carin Elliot, Myca Gray and Ebonne Sanders are all great-granddaughters of Robert's brother, John Henry Hughes.
This ceremony also acknowledged the terror the lynching caused Jesse Page and the intergenerational harm that has occurred since for both families and for African Americans across the nation.
Joslyn Page Allen, great-granddaughter of Jesse Page, read a poem she wrote, “My Hometown."
to view the recording of the livestream.
Attendees crossed the church property to the small garden adjacent to the Prospect Square, near the site of the lynching for the unveiling of the historical marker.
“Despite the enduring legacy of racial terrorism and injustice today, many communities where lynchings took place have landscapes featuring numerous memorials to the Civil War and the Confederacy, but few, if any, memorials to local histories of racial violence and injustice. EJI believes that truthfully acknowledging this history is vital to healing and reconciliation. In the effort to help towns, cities, and states confront and recover from tragic histories of racial violence and terrorism, EJI is joining with communities to install historical markers at the sites of lynchings, to encourage local recognition and necessary conversations.”
-- Equal Justice Initiative