Among the first activities undertaken by the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project was a soil collection at the old Baltimore County jail in Towson, site of the 1885 lynching of Howard Cooper.
One of those in attendance, public historian Jenny Liles, was moved by the occasion to investigate the case on her own. She provided this brief account of what she's discovered in a recent newsletter:
Following the soil collection ceremony I felt determined to locate the mother and learn more about Howard Cooper's family history. No article on his case gave a detailed description of his family or identified any family members by name. The few accounts which quoted or spoke of his mother only made reference to her as "his mother." Her name was never mentioned.
My initial research uncovered an 1870 census record which listed Howard with his mother (Henrietta), his twin brother (Henry), an aunt (Celesta) and his grandparents (David and Louisa Davis). That census recorded the twins' age as only 6 months old, meaning Howard Cooper could not have been older than 15 years at the time of his murder.
According to the record, the family lived in Towsontowne (9th district) and worked as farm hands and domestic servants. This initial discovery gave me the clues I needed to continue to research Cooper's family and life before and after his lynching on July 13, 1885.
More recently I have discovered a marriage certificate, court records and have even located, and have spoken to, living relatives of Howard Cooper. A more detailed account of this research will be published soon on the MD Lynching Memorial Project website.
This soil collection was completed in 2018. The Baltimore County Coalition has been approved by the Equal Justice Initiative to have an historic marker installed in November 2020.
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