"Unwritten Law": A Symposium on the Lynchings in Rockville

This event is part of a Remembrance Weekend in partnership with the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project and the Montgomery County Remembrance and Reconciliation Commission. To learn more about the rest of the weekend’s events, visit our website.

“Unwritten Law”: A Symposium on the Lynchings in Rockville
Saturday, September 25 on Zoom
9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Join Montgomery History as three Montgomery County historians provide accounts of the lynchings of Mr. John Diggs-Dorsey (d. 1880) and Mr. Sidney Randolph (d. 1896). This historical analysis will provide background on the economic, social, and political context of Montgomery County in the final decades of the 19th century and explore how elements of these murders were replicated in other parts of Maryland and the United States.

Part 1: Retrospective on Race in Post-Civil War Montgomery County, Ralph Buglass
Local historian Ralph Buglass sets the stage by putting into context the county’s racial climate at the time of the lynchings. In the decades after the Civil War, the Black population lived in an increasingly segregated society. They established mutually-supportive communities, working mainly as farm hands, manual laborers, and domestics, while their children attended separate, ill-equipped schools. Black residents were not denied the right to vote, but they lived precariously amidst a political climate in Montgomery County that was little changed from the war when Southern sympathies were strong.

Part 2: Two Rockville Lynchings: The Truth Uncovered, Sarah Hedlund
Archivist and researcher Sarah Hedlund narrates the history of the two lynchings that occurred in Rockville: John Diggs-Dorsey in 1880 and Sidney Randolph in 1896, based on a careful reading of hundreds of newspaper reports and supplemented with genealogical research, detailed maps, photographs, and archival documents. Interspersed with a local history context, this talk outlines the most complete and up-to-date accounts of these tragic events that took place in Montgomery County’s history near the end of the 19th century.

Part 3: Anatomy of a Lynching, Anthony Cohen
Anatomy of a Lynching explores the racist mob killings of three black men in 19th century Montgomery County and exposes the motives and methodologies used to commit these crimes against humanity. Historian Anthony Cohen rates and measures the severity of the George Peck, John Diggs-Dorsey and Sydney Randolph lynchings, placing them against the most notorious national cases of the Jim Crow era. Anatomy of a Lynching reveals the common “playbook” used by seemingly disparate communities nationwide and shows how legal systems conspired to support and promote these formidable acts of racial terror injustice.

The Saturday event is free to attend and entirely virtual. REGISTER HERE. For questions about the symposium please contact Montgomery History or visit our website for more information.