WACO —UPDATE: The Texa s Historical Commission voted on July 27 and approved all markers on the agenda, including the inscribed marker that was requested in Waco.

The marker reads as follows:

“THE WACO HORROR”:

THE LYNCHING OF JESSE WASHINGTON

THE HISTORY OF McLENNAN COUNTY, LIKE THAT OF TEXAS AND THE NATION, CLOUDED BY RACIAL TENSIONS, IS SOMETIMES MANIFESTED IN VIOLENCE. FROM 1860 THROUGH 1922, 43 LYNCHINGS WERE DOCUMENTED HERE. FOLLOWING RECONSTRUCTION, LAWS WERE INSTITUTED THAT HELD AFRICAN AMERICANS BACK FROM EDUCATION, JOBS AND PARTICIPATION IN MANY FORMS OF GOVERNMENT.

THE MOST NOTORIOUS LOCAL ACT OF RACIAL VIOLENCE OCCURRED IN 1916. ON MAY 8TH, IN THE FARMING COMMUNITY OF ROBINSON, MRS. LUCY FRYER WAS FOUND BLUDGEONED TO DEATH NEAR HER HOUSE. JESSE WASHINGTON, A TEENAGED AFRICAN AMERICAN FARMHAND, WAS ARRESTED FOR HER MURDER. KNOWN TO BE ILLITERATE AND POSSIBLY HAVING AN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY, WASHINGTON CHANGED HIS STORY FROM DENIAL TO ADMISSION OF GUILT AFTER BEING QUESTIONED FOR DAYS. ONE WEEK LATER, AS LARGE CROWDS GATHERED, HE WAS BROUGHT TO WACO FOR TRIAL. FOLLOWING A BRIEF TRIAL AND AFTER FOUR MINUTES OF JURY DELIBERATION, WASHINGTON WAS CONVICTED OF MURDER AND SENTENCED TO DEATH. IMMEDIATELY, HE WAS SEIZED BY A HORDE OF ONLOOKERS AND DRAGGED SEVERAL BLOCKS TO CITY HALL WHERE HE WAS BEATEN, STABBED, HANGED, MUTILATED AND BURNED TO DEATH AS THOUSANDS CHEERED.

JESSE WASHINGTON’S HORRIFIC DEATH RECEIVED UNPARELLELED NATIONWIDE PUBLIC ATTENTION. SEVERAL REPORTS, PARTICULARLY FROM OUTSIDE TEXAS, DENOUNCED THE ACT AS A BREAKDOWN OF LAW AND MORALITY. THE NEWLY FORMED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP) – NOW THE NATION’S OLDEST CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATION – HIRED ELISABETH FREEMAN TO INVESTIGATE. FAMED EDITOR W.E.B. DU BOIS USED HER FINDINGS AND COMMEMORATIVE PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN AT THE SCENE AS THE BASIS FOR THE NAACP’S JULY 1916 ISSUE OF THE CRISIS, A WIDELY DISTRIBUTED PUBLICATION, REFERRING TO THE EVENT AS “THE WACO HORROR.” DU BOIS AND THE NAACP MADE THE ATROCITY A TURNING POINT IN THE NATIONAL ANTI-LYNCHING MOVEMENT AND A STEP IN THE LONG MARCH TOWARD THE PROMISE OF CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL.

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Today's sun shines bright but Nona Baker is familiar with the cloud that once hung over the city of Waco

In 1905 her great uncle Sank Majors was lynched not too terribly far from where she is right now. 

"Well it's the classic story of the South.  Young Black man accused of raping a white woman, you know the rest is history,” Baker explains. "The mob or the Klan whoever they were decided that they didn't want that woman to have to testify anymore, so they would just lynch him."

It is a difficult trip down memory lane, one Baker has shared with Jo Welter. Welter is chair of the board of directors for the Community Race Relations Coalition.

"We are headed to the heart of downtown Waco right in front of City Hall. And that will allow us to see from that area the bridge over the Brazos River on Washington Ave where Sank Majors was hanged,” Welter shares.

The group's goal is to make everyone in the community feels respected and accepted. 

One of the more known lynchings was the lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco in 1916. However, his lynching was just one of many.

Since 2016, the Coalition has worked on getting an official state historical marker in Waco acknowledging Washington’s lynching and lynchings like Majors’.

Although it can be quite the process, Welter keeps pushing, even garnering support from city officials. 

“These hangings were very public and people gathered,” Welter explains. 

Baker recently visited the bridge where Majors was lynched.

“Left his body hanging… I think about how it hung over my family all these years,” Baker said. “Well, it's depressing when I think about what happened but I feel like it's necessary so I don't mind being here."

 Coalition member Toni Herbert wrote the narrative for the historical marker. 

“It was a statewide problem, you know. Darkness statewide and nationwide, so this was just our little microcosm in a much larger macrocosm of events that had taken place,” Herbert said. 

 Baker fully supports the historical marker. 

"I think it's important to have the marker, that way everybody can see,” Baker said. 

See it, understand it and grow from it.

Welter says the City of Waco plans to pay for the marker to go up once it is finished.

The Texas Historical Commissioners will consider the group's historical marker at its next quarterly meeting scheduled for July 26 and 27 in Austin.