Editor’s Note. On July 25 of 2015, the Spy sat down with Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson, the then co-chair of Talbot Association of Clergy, to talk about his organization’s request that the Talbot Boys be removed from the Talbot County Courthouse green. Almost precisely five years later, the statue remains in place.
In a going series of interviews, both from Spy archives, and the present, we return to our primary mission of community education related to the Talbot Boys statue, including its history and meaning in 2020.
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It seemed inevitable that once Nikki Haley, the very conservative, very Republican, and very dynamic South Carolina governor, announced last June that the Confederate flag should be removed from the statehouse grounds, every other state and town which had any connection to the Civil War would be looking very carefully on how those governments, directly or indirectly, have honored their own Confederate veterans in the tragic war between the states.
This certainly is the case with Talbot County. Over the last few weeks, in letters to the editor, at civic meetings, cocktail parties, and in the coffee houses of Easton and St. Michaels, the community is indeed having a real conversation about the future of the “Talbot Boys,” the memorial which honors the fallen local men who had fought for the South’s secession to preserve slavery, which is located on the front lawn of the historic Talbot County Courthouse.
In preparation of the first public meeting, now scheduled for next Wednesday at 4pm, with the Talbot County Council and local representatives of the NAACP discussing the status of the memorial, and to support what promises to be an important community conversation about race, history, and how we honor the courageous, the Spy starts our own series on the Talbot Boys.
The Spy starts this new project with Anglican Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson Bishop of The Anglican Diocese of The Chesapeake. A local leader in race relations since he arrived on the Eastern Shore twenty-five years ago, Bishop Johnson also currently chairs the Talbot Association of Clergy. Through these special experiences, he shares his perspective on the future of the Talbot Boys.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length
Carol Voyles says
Very nice, Bishop Joel. Thank you.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
Thank you, Carol. We’re all in this together. God’s Peace be with you.
Kathy Bosin says
Bishop Joel, a fountain on the courthouse lawn to commemorate the tears and loss of so many people sold into slavery is a powerful idea. It shifts the conversation. Thank you for that. Please keep talking about it. I know I will.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
Kathy – You’re so right, we need to shift the conversation. As I will appear among others before the Council at 4 tomorrow, this will be my emphasis – with some history and scholarship on my side. Hope you’ll be there. The Bradley Room is a closet, arrive early! +Joel
Keith Watts says
Good Morning.
In light of this article, I wanted to share my letter to the Talbot County Council, sent last week following the Council’s meeting.
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“Honorable Council Persons:
Good evening.
Kentucky, it seems has summoned the gumption and political will to remove Jefferson Davis from the rotunda in its State Capitol building.
The question presented is: Will Talbot County lead Maryland? Does The Talbot County Council have the will and wherewithal to relocate the “Talbot Boys” and let them rest in the Historical Society of Easton?
The following is from Robert F. Kennedy, when he shared the horrific news of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
“My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: ‘In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.’
What we need in the United States is not division;
what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that’s true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love–a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we’ve had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
Those words ring just as true now as they did then. I would hazard to say even more so.
I urge you. Each of you. Individually and collectively. Let us not wait for ballot measures. Let us not wait for more meaningless debates. Let us not wait for more salt rubbed in ancient and deep wounds.
Let us simply no longer be afraid. Show Talbot County, show the State of Maryland — show the world — that we “want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.”
Let us dedicate ourselves to that premise, and say a prayer for Talbot County — and for our people.
All of our people.
To that end, I will personally pay the relocation costs of the “Talbot Boys” if it is relocated in the next 72 hours.
The hour is upon you. Time is of the essence.
The tides of history are rising. The “Talbot Boys” will be swept away. It is no longer a question of “if” — but when.
Yes it is hard. Of course it’s hard. Otherwise it would’ve been done years ago.
But — this is the time. This is the place. This is the moment.
Right now.
Do the right thing. Do the honorable thing. Do the thing generations have waited for.
I know in your heart of hearts each of you can do this. And when you look in the mirror every morning from this moment on — from this moment on — you will see your reflection — a visage of quiet courage and peace — or remorse and regret for that which could have been.
As RFK said: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”
Please feel free to call me with any questions you may have.
Respectfully,
Keith A. Watts”