George Armwood was an African American laborer lynched by a white mob in Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland, on October 18, 1933. His murder is recorded as the last lynching in the state of Maryland.
Background and Accusation
George Armwood was born around 1911 and was about 22 or 23 when he died. He lived near Pocomoke City in Worcester County and worked as a laborer, including for a white employer named John H. Richardson. Contemporary accounts described him as quiet, hardworking, uncomplaining, and generally well-liked in his community. Some acquaintances and reports also characterized him as “feeble-minded” or intellectually limited; he reportedly left school around the fifth grade.
On the evening of October 16, 1933, 71-year-old Mary Denston was walking home from the post office in Princess Anne when she reported being assaulted by a young Black man near a field outside town. Denston identified Armwood as her assailant. He was arrested shortly afterward. Accounts of the assault’s details and the strength of the identification vary across sources. Some contemporary reports claimed Armwood made statements admitting involvement (sometimes limited to climbing on the woman and tearing clothing); others noted doubts about the evidence connecting him to the crime, and no formal trial ever occurred to adjudicate the accusation.
Arrest, Transfers, and Return to Princess Anne
Armwood was first taken into custody and held amid rising local tension. Authorities moved him for protection—first toward Salisbury, then farther north to Baltimore—after crowds gathered and threats of mob violence appeared. Local Eastern Shore officials, including Somerset County Judge Robert F. Duer and State’s Attorney John B. Robins, pressed for his return, assuring state authorities that he would be safe and that a trial could proceed promptly. Over the objections of some state police, Armwood was returned to the Princess Anne jail in the early hours of October 17 or on the 18th. Governor Albert C. Ritchie later publicly assigned responsibility for the decision to return Armwood to the local judge and prosecutor.
.
The Lynching
On the evening of October 18, 1933, a large crowd—estimates range from roughly 1,000 to more than 2,000 people, including men, women, and children—gathered outside the Somerset County jail. State police and local officers attempted to hold the building, deploying tear gas, but supplies ran out. The mob forced entry, using a heavy timber or telephone pole as a battering ram on the doors. Officers were overpowered; one captain was knocked unconscious, and keys were taken.
Armwood was found hiding under a mattress in a second-floor cell. A rope was placed around his neck, and he was dragged downstairs into the street. He was beaten, stabbed, and kicked. Accounts describe further mutilation, including the cutting off of one or both ears and the removal of gold teeth. He was tied to a vehicle, dragged, and taken to a tree on nearby private property (initially considered near Judge Duer’s home, ultimately on the property of an elderly resident named Bock or similar). He was hanged there. After death was evident, the body was dragged back into town, hung from a telephone pole at the corner of Prince and William Streets near the courthouse, and set on fire. The remains were later left in a lumber yard until collected by authorities the next morning. Contemporary Black press coverage, including reporting by Clarence Mitchell Jr. for the Afro-American, described the scene and its impact on local Black residents in stark terms. National newspapers labeled the event among the most disorderly lynchings in Maryland’s history.
Aftermath and Failure of Accountability
The killing provoked widespread condemnation. Governor Ritchie denounced it and ordered investigations. State police identified a number of alleged leaders of the mob. A grand jury eventually heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including Black prisoners who had been in the jail that night. Despite this, the local grand jury returned no indictments. Maryland Attorney General (later Governor) Preston Lane ordered National Guard troops to the area and pursued arrests. Several men were taken into custody. Local hostility toward state intervention was intense; crowds confronted the Guard, and there were reports of chants directed at state officials. Four men faced a habeas corpus hearing in Somerset County; they were released after a brief proceeding amid local support, and the case effectively ended without convictions. No one was ever successfully prosecuted for Armwood’s murder.
The death certificate listed the cause as “Killed by a mob for felonious assault of an aged white woman.”
Historical Context and Legacy
Lynchings were a widespread form of racial terror in the United States between the end of Reconstruction and the mid-20th century, with thousands of documented cases, the large majority involving Black victims. Maryland recorded dozens of such killings; the Eastern Shore had a particularly violent history in the early 1930s, including the 1931 lynching of Matthew Williams in Salisbury. Armwood’s death was the last recorded in the state.
The event drew national attention and contributed to broader debates over federal anti-lynching legislation (which repeatedly failed in Congress during the period). It also left a deep mark on Maryland’s Black community and civil rights leadership. Clarence Mitchell Jr., who covered the aftermath, and his brother Parren Mitchell later became major figures in the civil rights movement; the Princess Anne lynching is cited as a formative experience for them.
In more recent decades, the case has been revisited through historical scholarship, state archival biographies, museum exhibits (including at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore), local remembrance efforts, and reporting that examines both the specific facts and the broader pattern of racial violence and impunity on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Descendants and community members continue to recount family memory of the event.
The lynching of George Armwood stands as a documented instance of extrajudicial racial violence in which local authorities failed to protect a prisoner in custody, a large public spectacle of killing occurred, and the justice system produced no accountability for the perpetrators. It remains a significant episode in Maryland and American history of racial terror.