Civil Rights Leaders Seek Crownsville Hospital Memorial

Civil rights leaders are asking Gov. Martin O'Malley for a memorial to former patients of Crownsville State Hospital.

The Capital Gazette reports groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Maryland State Conference of NAACP Branches and the Maryland Disability Law Center sent the letter dated Aug. 5.

The facility served solely black patients until integration in the 1960s. The hospital was closed in 2004. During World War II, the hospital was overcrowded and patients endured poor conditions.

"You were more likely to leave Crownsville through death than discharge," said Paul Lurz, a former longtime employee there, told The Washington Post in 2005.

Some patients at Crownsville were given lobotomies or electroshock treatment, according to the Capital Gazette report.

“What happened at Crownsville is part of Maryland’s story, not just local history, and so we ask the state to step up, investigate this past, and memorialize those who lived it,” Jacqueline Boone Allsup, president of the Anne Arundel County branch of the NAACP, told the Capital Gazette.