Racial justice poetry contest + Exhibition

For the past five years the Baltimore County Lynching Memorial Project hosted a Racial Justice Poetry Contest + Exhibition for 6th-12th graders who attend Baltimore County public, parochial, and independent schools. The contest has been open to students who receive their education in homeschool settings in Baltimore County. 

We are shaking things up in 2025!

Context and Prior Prompt

In 1885, a Black fifteen-year-old named Howard Cooper was dragged from his jail cell and hanged by a mob of seventy-five white men. It was an act of racial terror lynching, meaning a person---because of their race---became a victim of unlawful and lethal violence in an effort to terrorize an entire community. According to research conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative and the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Maryland played host to at least 38 victims of racial terror lynchings between the years 1854 and 1933.

Howard Cooper’s life was taken in Baltimore County. Howard was waiting to appeal a conviction to the Supreme Court when the mob took the law into their own hands. The lynching denied Howard his rights and his life. The fear evoked by the act attempted to silence his community. Howard's story has been kept from entering Maryland classrooms...until now.

The Baltimore County LMP invites students of Baltimore County to use Howard’s lynching as inspiration to combat tactics that deny truths about racism in our state. Students interested in this contest will compose a poem that expresses a perspective on, or personal experience with, racism. Like the historical marker that was installed for Howard Cooper in 2021, the original poem must bring public attention to injustice as a necessary step toward achieving racial harmony.

Additional contest details may be found HERE.

Winners (2024 Information)

A first place and second place entry will be selected from the following three divisions: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-10, and Grades 11-12. All entries will receive blind adjudication by high school seniors who attend the Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, and who are prohibited from submitting their own work. 

The first place entry for each division will receive the following:

• A check for $200

• Publication of their poem on the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MLMP) website

• An invitation to read their poem at the awards ceremony in April 26, 2024

• A free poetry recitation workshop with DewMore Baltimore

Second place entries will receive the following:

• A check for $100

• Publication of their poem on the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project (MLMP) website

• An invitation to read their poem at the awards ceremony in April 26, 2024

• A free poetry recitation workshop with DewMore Baltimore

All entries for the Racial Justice Poetry Contest must be submitted HERE by 11:59 p.m. on March 1, 2024. 

Questions? Contact us at racialjusticepoetrycontest@gmail.com.