Waco, Texas – Nearly a century after a black teenager was stabbed, burned and hanged in front of about 15,000 people, some black residents are calling for the city to make amends.
The slaying was just one of the 4,700 lynchings in the South from the late 1800s to early 1900s, but it was one of the few photographed in progress, capturing images of a mob dragging 17-year-old Jesse Washington from the courthouse, cutting him with knives and dangling him over a fire.
Newspapers referred to the 1916 killing as the “Waco horror” after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s magazine published pictures, now displayed in the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn.
Two new books have renewed interest in the case and spurred calls for the city to apologize to the black community or erect a historical marker.
“I think it’s appropriate. I think it’s time … because if we don’t address things, we never get healed,” said Michael Babers, a black minister.
City officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
Three years ago, county commissioners rejected a request to create a plaque to explain a courthouse painting of Waco history that includes a tree with a noose.
Houston author Patricia Bernstein, who wrote “The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP,” said Wednesday that she wanted to help residents start a dialogue about how the city should address the lynching.
