In her 2006 study of lynching, journalist Patricia Bernstein describes the city as then having a "thin veneer" of peace and respectability. In the mid-1910s, blacks comprised about twenty percent of the Waco population. A black middle class had emerged in the area, along with two black colleges. By the 1910s, Waco's economy had become strong and the city had gained a pious reputation. After it became associated with crime in the 19th century, community leaders sought to change its reputation, sending delegations across the U.S. In 1916, Waco, Texas, was a prosperous city with a population of more than 30,000. Although lynching was tolerated by much of southern society, opponents of the practice emerged, including some religious leaders and the nascent National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Lynching also provided a sense of White solidarity in a culture with changing demographics and power structures. Supporters of lynching justified the practice as a way to assert dominance over African Americans, to whom they attributed a criminal nature. They were conducted outside the legal system: suspects were taken from jail and courtrooms or killed before arrest. Between 18, about 3,000 African Americans were killed by lynch mobs in cases where they were alleged perpetrators of crimes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thousands of lynchings occurred in the Southern United States, primarily of African Americans in the states of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. An historical marker has been installed to memorialize the lynching.Ī 1911 postcard of a group of Waco residents on the river bank, alluding to George Seurat's La Grande Jatte, reflecting the city's desire to present itself as an idyllic locale On the centenary of the event, in May 2016, the mayor of Waco held a formal ceremony to apologize to Washington's descendants and the African American community. In the 1990s and 2000s, some Waco residents lobbied for a monument to Washington's lynching, but this idea failed to garner wide support in the city. The widespread negative publicity helped curb public support for the practice. Historians have noted that Washington's death helped alter the way lynching was viewed. Du Bois published an in-depth report featuring photographs of Washington's charred body in The Crisis, and the NAACP featured his death in their anti-lynching campaign. After receiving Freeman's report on the lynching, NAACP co-founder and editor W. She also concluded that Washington killed Fryer. Freeman concluded that white residents were generally supportive of Washington's lynching. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hired Elisabeth Freeman to investigate she conducted a detailed probe in Waco, despite the reluctance of many residents to speak about the event. The pictures were printed and sold as postcards in Waco.Īlthough the lynching was supported by many Waco residents, it was condemned by newspapers around the United States.
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A professional photographer took pictures as the event unfolded, providing rare imagery of a lynching in progress. After the fire was extinguished, his charred torso was dragged through the town. He was repeatedly lowered and raised over the fire for about two hours. Members of the mob cut off his fingers, and hung him over a bonfire after saturating him with coal oil. There was a celebratory atmosphere among whites at the spectacle of the murder, and many children attended during their lunch hour. Over 10,000 spectators, including city officials and police, gathered to watch the attack. He was then lynched in front of Waco's city hall. He was then paraded through the street, all while being stabbed and beaten, before being held down and castrated. He was chained by his neck and dragged out of the county court by observers. Washington was convicted of raping and murdering Lucy Fryer, the wife of his white employer in rural Robinson, Texas. Jesse Washington was a seventeen-year-old African American farmhand who was lynched in the county seat of Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, in what became a well-known example of racist lynching.
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