Jesse Washington

People

Jesse Washington

Outcome

unknown

On May 15, 1916, Jesse Washington, a 17-year-old Black farmhand described as illiterate and having an intellectual disability, was publicly lynched in Waco, Texas, before a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 spectators in what became known as the "Waco Horror." Washington had been accused of raping and murdering Lucy Fryer, a 53-year-old white woman and wife of his employer, on a farm in Robinson, seven miles south of Waco. After an all-white jury deliberated for only four minutes before finding him guilty, a mob of approximately 400 people seized Washington from the courtroom before he could be remanded to custody. He was dragged through town with chains around his neck, beaten with shovels, clubs, and bricks, castrated, had his ear severed, was hanged from a tree on the City Hall grounds, and burned alive with coal oil. Afterward, schoolboys sold his teeth and chain links as souvenirs, and his charred remains were transported to Robinson and hung from a pole outside a blacksmith's shop for public display. The NAACP's investigation and subsequent publication of the atrocity in *The Crisis* magazine made this one of the most documented and publicized lynchings in American history. Jesse Washington was born in 1897, the eldest of twelve children of George and Ellen Washington. He worked as a laborer on the Fryer farm and was described as having "a quiet disposition and a mental disability." On May 8, 1916, Lucy Fryer's body was discovered on the farm with her skull bludgeoned. Washington was quickly arrested after lawmen found him with blood on his clothes and claimed he had directed them to a hidden blacksmith's hammer allegedly used in the murder. He was initially taken to jails in Hillsboro and then Dallas County to prevent an immediate lynching. While in custody, Washington signed a confession with an "X" since he was illiterate; this confession was published in all three Waco newspapers before his trial. When asked about his plea in court, he reportedly answered "yes" to both guilty and not guilty questions. The trial took place on May 15, 1916, in the Fifty-fourth District Court under Judge Richard Irby Munroe. The courtroom was packed with approximately 2,500 people. Six inexperienced young lawyers were appointed to represent Washington but challenged no jurors and presented no defense witnesses. The jury of twelve white men deliberated only four minutes before returning a guilty verdict with the death penalty. Immediately after the verdict, the courthouse mob seized Washington. He was dragged with a chain around his neck to the City Hall grounds, where a pile of dry-goods boxes had been prepared under a tree. The mob threw him onto the pile, poured coal oil over his body, and hoisted him into the air before lowering him onto the flames. Mayor John Dollins and Police Chief Guy McNamara watched from the mayor's office window. The burning lasted approximately two hours. Two hours later, several men placed Washington's charred corpse in a cloth bag, tied it behind an automobile, and dragged it to Robinson, where they hung the sack from a pole in front of a blacksmith's shop for public viewing. The NAACP hired Elisabeth Freeman, a women's suffrage activist, to investigate the lynching. Posing as a journalist, Freeman arrived in Waco soon after and successfully obtained photographs taken by Fred Gildersleeve, the town's chief photographer, who had been advised in advance where the lynching would take place. W.E.B. Du Bois published the findings in an eight-page supplement to the July 1916 edition of *The Crisis* titled "The Waco Horror," placing a photograph of Washington's burned body on the cover. The supplement was sent to the magazine's 42,000 subscribers, 750 newspapers, every member of Congress, and President Wilson's cabinet, with an additional 12,000 copies distributed as promotional material for the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign. National publications including *The Nation*, *New Republic*, and *The New York Times* condemned the lynching, though most Texas papers remained silent or defensive. Despite lynching being illegal under Texas law, no members of the mob were ever prosecuted. A Black journalist named A.T. Smith was arrested for criminal libel after alleging that Lucy Fryer's husband had actually committed the murder. In 2006, ninety years after the lynching, Waco city officials formally acknowledged this history and issued an apology resolution.