PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - Every fall, Professor Michael Lane of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore leads a Walk of Remembrance for a man lynched in Princess Anne on October 18, 1933.
The subject of the walk and lecture is George Armwood. Armwood was a black man who at about age 23 was accused of sexually assaulting a 73-year-old woman.
However, Armwood's guilt was never proven in a court of law.
"He never arrived at his arraignment, he never sat trial, he was not even positively identified by his alleged victim," Lane explained.
Armwood allegedly penned a confession to the crime, but to this day there is no evidence such a confession ever existed.
On October 18, 1933, a mob took Armwood from his jail cell, hauling him down steps at the Princess Anne police headquarters, in such a way that his head banged on every step. His body was then mutilated before he was dragged behind a truck to Somerset Avenue.
At the location on Somerset Avenue, Armwood was hanged and died.
Friday's two hour walk took students and others to the actually places where Armwood lived his last hours.
"There's history all over this town," said UMES freshman Angelica Vilorio. "And honestly you truly do have to know about all these things in order to move on from, to not repeat history, if that makes sense."
After Armwood's death, the mob was not done. His body was then dragged down Somerset Avenue to the County Court House where it was hanged again, and then burned.
Armwood's teeth were extracted and given as souvenirs to onlookers.
According to Vilorio, graphic examinations of history like this are not meant to sow feelings of guilt in any group.
"We're not trying to make your children feel bad," Vilorio said. "[We need] to educate them and let them know that this is what happened back then, and that we should never repeat history."
After Armwood's second hanging, the remains of his body were dumped in a barn on Church Street, where his family was told they could retrieve them.
There were 40 confirmed lynchings in Maryland between the 1880s and 1960s. Eleven happened on the state's Eastern Shore.
Armwood's lynching was the third - and last - lynching in Somerset County.
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore will host the first in a series of public hearings on November 5 to discuss lynching in Maryland as part of the school's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.