Howard Cooper (c. 1867-1885)
MSA SC 3520-13733
Biography:
Howard Cooper, an African American resident of Towson, Maryland, was accused of the assault, rape and attempted murder of a 16-year-old white girl, Miss Kate Gray, on April 2, 1885. Cooper, who said that he was 17 years old but was reported to be about 20 or 24, encountered Miss Gray on a county road near her house, about six miles from Towson. He apparently knew her, or at least knew her name, because she claimed that he called out her name. After she ignored him and continued walking along, Cooper pursued her, beat her and dragged her into the woods and assaulted her over a three-hour period until being frightened away by one of her dogs. He was discovered four days later hiding in a barn near Towson and was jailed at Baltimore City and after June 30 at Towson.
Cooper's case was tried in the Criminal Court of Baltimore City on May 20, 1885. The jury found Cooper guilty and the judge sentenced him on May 21, 1885 to die by hanging. Governor Henry Lloyd issued the death warrant for Cooper, and he was scheduled to be hanged on July 31, 1895. Cooper himself admitted guilt, and his lawyers, William George Weld and A. Robinson White, believed him guilty of the crime. Nevertheless, the lawyers decided to use the case to call attention to the civil rights issue. They appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals where they argued that the verdict should be set aside because there had been no African American men serving on the jury that had convicted Cooper. When the Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's ruling, Cooper's lawyers then declared their intention to appeal to the federal courts and to try to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they would argue that Cooper's civil and constitutional rights had been violated based on the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. An African American organization called the Progressive Association then drafted a circular letter to interested members of the African American community asking them to contribute to Cooper's legal expenses so that the case could be taken to the Supreme Court. The Baltimore Sun printed a copy of the letter several days later, which alarmed certain members of the white community, who were convinced of Cooper's guilt and feared that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court could mean that he could go unpunished on a technicality. They decided to lynch Cooper in order to prevent the case from going to the Supreme Court and from being dragged out for many more months. They justified their actions on the grounds that Miss Gray should not be subject to "the anguish of another recital of the crime" if the case were remanded back to the Baltimore court and she should be called to testify a second time. ("Howard Cooper Lynched!" The Maryland Journal, 18 July 1885).
On the evening and early morning of July 12 and 13, 1885, about 75 men wearing black muslin masks and handkerchiefs over their faces approached the jail where Howard Cooper was being held. They used an old flagpole to break in the back door, then smashed the lock on Cooper's jail cell and forced it open. They immediately put a cotton rope around his neck and led him back out the back door into the jail yard, where they hanged him from the nearest tree. The men did not otherwise harm Cooper. Because the sheriff was able to catch a glimpse of the faces of several of the lynchers and did not recognize them, The Maryland Journal reported that nearly all of the lynchers had probably come from outside of Towson and were probably not residents of that city. The Baltimore County Union reported that the men came from the third district, where the Gray family resided. ("The Lynching of Howard Cooper, The Baltimore County Union, 18 July 1885). After Cooper's body was removed from the tree about ten hours later, his mother came and claimed the body and buried it on Bare Hill, near Falls Road.
The reaction to the lynching by members of the African American
community was one of anger and disappointment that the issue of civil rights
had been preempted from being raised in the U.S. Supreme Court in connection
with this case. They condemned the mob violence not because they
sympathized with Cooper but because they believed that there was a chance
that the Supreme Court would acknowledge a need for African Americans to
serve as jurors. A meeting took place on July 14, 1885 at Bethel
A.M.E. Church in Hagerstown, attended by about fifty African American citizens.
They drafted a resolution condemning the "growing spirit of lawlessness
toward the colored people of the State of Maryland" and declared that "the
great number of colored men accused as criminals who have been lawlessly
slain in this State within the last few years is a stigma upon the fair
name of Maryland." ("Howard Cooper Lynched!" The Maryland
Journal, 18 July 1885). Judge William
Shepard Bryan of the Maryland Court of Appeals was reported to have
said that "the summary disposition of the case would not have occurred
if the friends of the condemned man had not resorted to the extreme measures
they took to raise funds." (Quoted in "The Lynching of Cooper," The
Baltimore Sun, 14 July 1885).
Link
to Lynching Profile Questionnaire
Return to Howard Cooper's Introductory Page
|
|| Search the Archives || Education & Outreach || Archives of Maryland Online ] Governor General Assembly Judiciary Maryland.Gov
|