It Happened Here: Remembering Three Lynchings at MoCo libraries

2026

“IT HAPPENED HERE: REMEMBERING THREE LYNCHINGS” was developed by MoCoLMP and reveals the forgotten and nearly-erased history that occurred in our county. Originally focused on the two lynchings that took place in Rockville, the exhibit now includes Mr. Peck’s lynching in Poolesville.

With site markers and photographs, this exhibit traces the paths of the three lynchings: Mr. George Peck in 1880, Mr. John Diggs-Dorsey in 1880 and Mr. Sidney Randolph in 1896. Each of these three men was denied any semblance of due process and each racially violent death was determined to be “at the hands of parties unknown.”