Civil Rights Leaders Dedicate Monument to Parren J. Mitchell, Maryland’s First Black Congressman, In Annapolis on May 28

A monument honoring Maryland’s first Black congressman, Parren J. Mitchell, was unveiled at the entrance of the Pip Moyer Recreation Center in Annapolis on Wednesday May 28, 2025. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee and the Caucus of African American Leaders raised the $100,000 cost of the monument from private donors. The city of Annapolis provided the land and perpetual maintenance of the site. Over 500 people attended the event with speakers sharing their memories of Mitchell including Governor Wes Moore, State Senator Shaneka Henson, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and Mitchell family member, former State Senator Michael Bowen Mitchell. 

“The Parren J. Mitchell monument stands not just as a tribute to a remarkable man, but as a symbol of progress and possibility,” said Carl Snowden, chair of the MLK Jr. Committee and convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders. “I thank the community for their support in funding this monument. We are also grateful for the City’s support in acknowledging Mitchell’s legacy. Together, we ensure that future generations understand the power of principled leadership and the importance of civic engagement.”

Mitchell, an influential Black politician, was elected to Congress in 1971 and served as chair of the House Small Business Committee, passing away in 2007, leaving a significant legacy in his wake. Mitchell was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a champion for affirmative action, and a stalwart advocate for affordable housing. He worked closely with local leaders to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday, making Maryland the second state in the nation to recognize the civil rights leader’s legacy in this way.

The Roger “Pip” Moyer Recreation Center is a fitting and meaningful location for the Parren J. Mitchell Memorial, not only because it serves as a hub for community, inclusion, and youth development, but also because of its deep historical ties to the Mitchell family’s legacy of civil rights activism. During the Civil Rights Movement, former State Sen. Michael Mitchell—Parren J. Mitchell’s nephew—was arrested during a sit-in at a segregated restaurant where he called on Roger “Pip” Moyer to post bail. Placing the memorial here honors that courageous stand and recognized Parren J. Mitchell’s legacy in the very heart of a community shaped by his family’s commitment to equality, service, and progress.

The MLK Jr. Committee has successfully placed four previous memorials to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and in honor of civil and human rights activists in Anne Arundel County, funded by private donations. A bronze statue of King was erected at the Anne Arundel Community College in 2006 after the Committee raised more than $250,000. In 2011, the Committee dedicated a plaque and garden tribute to Dr. King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, at Sojourner Douglass College in Edgewater, Maryland in 2013, the Committee erected a monument in Annapolis to the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers who marched in the famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” civil rights March on Washington. 

In 2021, the Committee was the lead sponsor for the “Guardians of the First Amendment” memorial that honors the five lives lost at The Capital newspaper during a 2018 mass shooting that was the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history. For more information or to donate, write to MLK Jr. Committee, PO Box 371, Annapolis MD 21404; call 443-871-5656; or visit www.MLKJr.org.