Salisbury City Council to revisit lynching apology next month

SALISBURY, Md. – Next month, Salisbury City Council is expected to revisit a formal apology over the city’s painful past with lynching.

The apology is listed for the council’s March 11th agenda. The update comes after the city’s Truth, Racial, Unity, Transformation and Healing (TRUTH) Committee approved the resolution.

“We made sure to slow it down, and that we did this process the way it should be done in our city,” said Salisbury City Council President, D’Shawn Doughty. “So, we brought it forward to our TRUTH Committee, and we had them look it over.”

The community has been asking for a formal apology from the city over its role in the lynching of Matthew Williams. In 1931, a mob violently attacked and hung Williams, who was Black, and desecrated his remains in Downtown Salisbury, following a supposed deadly dispute between him and a white employer.

The city’s fire department at the time is accused of providing the rope for lynching; local law enforcement, back on that day, is accused to turning a blind eye to the horrific events unfolding, and even facilitating the lynching.

It’s a painful, but necessary history to reconcile, that city leaders say they wanted to get right. We are collectively putting our minds and our  hearts together to form something that is good for the greater good of Salisbury,” Doughty said.

Doughty expects the resolution to pass at council’s meeting on March 11th. He added that the accountability and apology provided in the resolution should last a lifetime.