Lynching in Wicomico — Garfield King Newspaper Clipping

Wicomico County, Maryland. — A newspaper clipping reports the lynching of Garfield King, described as “a colored lad,” who was hanged from a tree and his body riddled with bullets by a white mob.

The paper frames the murder as “summary vengeance” for the shooting of a white boy named Herman Kenney the previous Saturday. No trial. No arrest. No due process. The mob decided, and the newspaper recorded it as a matter of fact.

Garfield King was a young man. The clipping does not give his age, his family, or anything else about who he was. It gives the mob a motive and moves on.

That erasure is also part of the record.

This Receipt preserves the document as it was printed — including the language, the framing, and what was left out.

Available in three sizes. Framed or print only.