Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) called for the removal of the Confederate Talbot Boys monument in Easton on Wednesday, saying the Jim Crow-era statue is “not just a vestige of slavery and white supremacy from long ago, but a sign of enduring resistance to racial equality.”
Frosh is the latest high-profile Maryland official to call for the statue’s removal. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and a broad coalition of officials and advocates have demanded that the statue, which sits on the front lawn of the Talbot County Courthouse in Easton, be removed. The Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the Talbot County NAACP filed a lawsuit earlier this year arguing that the statue’s presence of the courthouse grounds is racist and unconstitutional. Frosh likewise criticized the monument’s location in a Wednesday release.
“Courthouses are places where our State and federal constitutions guarantee equal justice under the law. Like similar monuments erected during the Jim Crow era and beyond, the ‘Talbot Boys’ belies this promise,” Frosh said.
Talbot County officials previously requested that the lawsuit be dismissed, arguing that plaintiffs “have failed to state any claim upon which relief may be granted.” A response from the plaintiffs to that motion to dismiss is due Friday. The plaintiffs previously slammed the motion to dismiss the case, and criticized Talbot County Council members for refusing to sign off on the statue’s removal last year.
“Residents of Talbot County should not have to await the end of protracted litigation to rid public property of this documented symbol of hatred, intimidation, and inequality,” Frosh said in the release. “It’s time for the ‘Talbot Boys’ to go.”
Bennett Leckrone
Reporter
Bennett Leckrone was a Report for America corps member at Maryland Matters through May 2022. He is a December 2019 graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. Leckrone has interned at The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Columbus Dispatch, PennLive.com, The Dayton Daily News and The Troy Daily News.
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