In 1965, at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, there was an explosion of confederate markers and monuments erected across the country.
One of those was a simple sign to a confederate general in Salisbury, MD named John Henry Winder. What the sign does not say in its relatively few words, was that this man was essentially in charge of Confederate prisons during the American Civil War, including the infamous Andersonville camp, where tens of thousands of Union soldiers were starved to death. Originally placed outside of town on Route 13, it was moved in the 1980s to a prominent site on the grounds of the Historic Wicomico County Courthouse: the same location where slaves were once bought and sold; where in 1880 Frederick Douglass spoke to a mixed-race crowd, and most damningly; the same location where two black men were lynched by white mobs: Garfield King in 1898 and Matthew Williams in 1931.
It’s not known how often controversy has come up regarding “The Sign” over the years, but what is known is that in 2014, former black Wicomico County Councilperson Edward Taylor wrote an OpEd in the Daily Times calling for its removal. His concern was met with silence.
Three years later, following a heated petition campaign by local community members to remove this historical marker, Edward Taylor once again spoke for its removal. Once again, county officials ignored his plea. Sadly, Mr. Taylor passed away on May 30th, 2020 at the age of 88. Just days after his passing, another petition was started by local business owners demanding that the sign be removed. And last Friday, June 12th (in the midst of a nationwide uprising protesting rampant police lynchings) the Winder sign finally was removed at the behest of County Executive Bob Culver, who vociferously defended it three years earlier. As the Salisbury Lynching Memorial Task Force continues its progress towards erecting historical marker(s) and memorials to the three victims of racial terror lynchings in Salisbury, one obvious symbol of white supremacy has, at last, been removed. A small victory, but a needed one.