Negro Mountain, in Maryland, gets historic marker

NOW IT STANDS, THE HISTORIC NEGRO MOUNTAIN MARKER, IN GARRETT COUNTY, MARYLAND. MEMBERS OF THE DR. EDNA B. MCKENZIE BRANCH OF ASALH ARE PICTURED. The Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) of Western Pennsylvania continues to celebrate Negro Mountain, located in Grantsville, Maryland. In fact, the local ASALH adopted Negro Mountain to accurately teach the history of the unknown Black frontiersman for whom the mountain was named and who died alongside Thomas Cresap in a skirmish with Indigenous French Allies on May 24, 1776. His name has been lost to history, yet signage emblazoned with the name of the mountain had previously stood prominently. However, in May 2019, when the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch members journeyed to Maryland to clean the Negro Mountain Parklet area of litter, they discovered both of the elevation signs were missing on U.S. Alt. Route 40. Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch President Ronald B. Saunders quickly jumped into action, first contacting Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and working with the governor’s designee, Gregory Slater, members of the Dr. Edna B. McKenzie Branch, and the president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Afro-American Historical...