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colored men walking arm in arm." The ILD delegation arrived at the same time as
the Urban League delegation, and police were used to eject the ILD, while the
Urban League proceeded to meet with Ritchie.^
Other delegations to Ritchie were, like the ILD delegation, regionally
diverse. A delegation of nine Black lawyers from Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and
Virginia confronted the governor with a detailed plan for a Maryland ami-lynching
law that they suggested he promote. In addition, they called for Ritchie to support
federal ami-lynching legislation and challenged him to say whether or not an
internal investigation of the role of the state police in the Armwood murder was
taking place. In response, Ritchie was reportedly nonplused and attempted to
finesse by replying that he preferred to solve things locally not federally, that he was
unfamiliar with the alternatives for state anti-lynching legislation and would have to
study the problem, and that security prevented him from commenting on the
internal workings of the state police.
The lawyers' group was introduced to Ritchie by Josiah F. Henry, the exalted
leader of the Monumental Lodge of Elks in Baltimore, and was led by Charles
Houston, then vice-dean (soon to be dean) of Howard University Law School and a
leading NAACP counsel; Forum member Thurgood Marshall and movement
veteran Roger McGuinn were among the Baltimore delegates. Charles Houston
was, at the time, particular active in anti-lynching work. Within a few days of
leading the delegation to Ritchie's office, he sent telegrams protesting the
Armwood lynching to the American Bar Association, the Maryland Bar
Association, and the American Legion (the last condemned a statement by the
Princess Anne legion commander that his post would protect the people of
Maryland, "but not a Negro"). Also at this time, Houston and two other
Washington lawyers filed a brief with the federal government, arguing that the U.S.
military could be called out to apprehend local officials who allowed the lynching of
prisoners in their
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