The Waco Horror, infamous lynching in front of 10,000 cheering spectators

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After cutting off his fingers, ears and toes, the crowd burned Jesse Washington’s body. “Shouts of delight went up from the thousands of throats ...”

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAN WINTERS

Start at the back door of the magnificent stone courthouse, where a wave of white men dragged Jesse Washington into the alley, tearing his clothes off as they went. Walk 65 steps over the red alley bricks to North 5th Street, where the swelling mob paused to cinch a chain around Jesse’s neck. Cross 5th, turn right, and take the short walk to Washington Avenue. Thousands of people massed here to partake in the killing of the 17-year-old farmhand. As Jesse was pulled down the wide street that cruelly shares his last name, they attacked him with knives, bricks, shovels and clubs. Blood covered Jesse’s dark skin.

It was almost noon on May 15, 1916. With the Texas heat climbing into the 80s, the Waco Horror had begun.

I can feel the boiling blood lust of the mob on a cool night in April as I retrace the final steps of Jesse Washington’s life. I’ve come to Waco to explore the meaning of this century-old atrocity, to probe beneath the eerie coincidence of sharing a name with one of the most famous lynching victims in U.S. history.

I first saw a photo of Jesse’s remains nearly 20 years ago and delved into the story from afar. After being convicted of the rape and murder of Lucy Fryer, a white farmer’s wife, he was dismembered, hanged and burned as more than 10,000 people watched, including the police chief and mayor. Then he was dragged behind a horse until his head flew off. No one was prosecuted for those crimes. But international publicity of such public brutality helped galvanize the anti-lynching movement and solidify the influence of the recently formed NAACP.

A decade ago, I watched indignantly as efforts to commemorate Jesse’s lynching were stymied by the white power structure in Waco. More recently, I pondered the parallels with recent killings of unarmed black males that exploded into national prominence. Above all, I yearned to confront the city in person.

Continue to Full Story at The Undefeated

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