Buttons 25

On Sunday afternoon October 3, 2020 the Allegany County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Branch #7007 sponsored a march and rally in Cumberland, Maryland. The theme was “She Matters” and the focus was upon the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as other women who died of violence. The march, in which several hundred people participated, began at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Washington Street and concluded at the Cumberland City Hall where several speeches and songs were presented. Chants of “Say Her Name, Breonna Taylor,” “Knock First,” “Could have been me, could have been you” were heard during the march.

In recent years, from Antietam National Battlefield in Washington County to the City of Baltimore to the Eastern Shore the state of Maryland has become part of a national movement and debate pertaining to the removal of Confederate Monuments. The button depicted here from Talbot County, Maryland characterizes that effort and pertains to an ongoing attempt to remove the “Talbot Boys” memorial from the lawn of the Talbot County Courthouse in Easton. Dedicated in 1916 the memorial commemorates 84 soldiers from the county who fought for the Confederacy. Numerous citizens and elected officials, white as well as African-American, support the monument’s removal which at this writing remains in place.