Editor’s Note. On July 27 of 2015, the Spy sat down with Richard Potter, the president of the NAACP Eastern Shore chapter, 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. We talked to Richard about how he got involved with NAACP and his leadership in their first attempt to take down the Talbot Boys.
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.
If one were looking for examples of a new generation taking on leadership roles in Talbot County, Richard Potter would be a good place to start. The current president of the NAACP’s Easton Chapter was born in 1982. And while his day job is one of being an educator with the Dorchester County School District, his new work, representing an organization formed in 1909 “to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination,” has taken on new meaning as County leaders begin to discuss the future of the Talbot Boys statue now sitting on the County Courthouse lawn.
In his interview with the Spy, Richard talks about the Talbot Boys, what the memorial means in the local African-American community as it stands now, and the generational change of perspective taking place that seriously questions how history is told in public spaces.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length.
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