Michael Green
MSA SC 3520-13788
Lynched near Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, September 1, 1878

Biography:

Michael Green, a Black man, was lynched by a band of men who broke into the jail at Upper Marlboro on September 1, 1878.  Green had been apprehended and detained for the assault of Miss Alice Sweeny, of Prince George's County.  The Prince George's County sheriff was very successful in protecting Green in the jailhouse for the week prior to his lynching, as there were many threats of lynching from citizens eager to punish Green for his "crime of an unusually aggravated
character."1  He was hanged about a mile outside of Upper Marlboro.  Michael Green was buried outside the Upper Marlboro jailhouse on the west lawn next to the body of Joe Vermillion, also of Upper Marlboro, who was lynched in 1889 for the rape of Mrs. Edgar Nelson.

1.   The Sun, 3 September 1878.

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