Lynching of Jesse Washington

Trial and lynching

On the morning of May 15, the Waco courthouse filled to capacity, with over two thousand spectators present, almost entirely white. As Washington was led in, an audience member pointed a gun at him but was overpowered. Judge Richard Irby Munroe attempted to maintain order. Jury selection proceeded quickly, and Washington muttered a response interpreted as a guilty plea.

The prosecution presented testimony from law enforcement and the doctor who examined Fryer's body; the doctor did not mention rape. Washington's attorney asked if he committed the offense; Washington replied, 'That's what I done' and apologized. The jury was sent to deliberate.

Aftermath

Fred Gildersleeve, a professional photographer based in Waco, showed up at city hall just before the lynching began, likely because the mayor asked him to. He took pictures of the event, which are unusual because they show a lynching while it was happening, not just the dead victim afterward. His photos capture the crowd from a building and close-ups of Washington’s body; an assistant may have taken some. Gildersleeve made postcards from these images, showing teenagers, some only twelve years old, standing around Washington’s corpse.

The people in the pictures made no effort to cover their faces, which suggests they were confident no one would face charges. A few well-known locals convinced Gildersleeve to stop selling the postcards, worried they would hurt Waco’s image. In the following days, newspapers strongly criticized the lynching. The New York Times said no other supposedly civilized country would allow a man to be burned alive in a city street while its residents cheered savagely.

The Montgomery Advertiser called the participants crueler than any savage. In Texas, the Houston Chronicle and Austin American condemned the mob but praised Waco itself. The Waco Morning News expressed mild disapproval, instead blaming outside papers for attacking the city unfairly. One writer for the Waco Semi-Weekly Tribune defended the lynching, arguing Washington got what he deserved.

NAACP investigation and campaign

The NAACP sent Elisabeth Freeman, a New York City women's suffrage activist, to look into the lynching. She was already in Dallas for a statewide convention and started her work in Waco right after the event, pretending to be a reporter. Most people there did not want to talk about what happened. She met with local officials and got photos from Gildersleeve, who was hesitant to hand them over.

Talking to city leaders, Freeman convinced them she would defend Waco against outside criticism. Some reporters became suspicious and told locals not to speak with outsiders, but Black residents welcomed her warmly. Freeman talked to Sheriff Fleming and the judge, both of whom said they were not to blame. A teacher who knew Washington told her he could not read or write, and all efforts to teach him had failed.

Freeman found that white residents mostly supported the lynching after the conviction, though many were disturbed by the mutilation. She learned the mob was led by a bricklayer, a saloonkeeper, and several ice company workers; the NAACP never publicly named them. Freeman believed Washington had killed Fryer and suggested he resented her bossy attitude. W. E. B. Du Bois was furious about the attack, calling talk of Christian triumph or human culture meaningless as long as such lynchings happened.

After getting Freeman’s report, he put a photo of Washington’s body on the cover of The Crisis in a special supplement called “The Waco Horror,” which came with the July issue.

Analysis and legacy

In 2011, Manfred Berg concluded that Washington probably murdered Fryer but doubted that he raped her. Julie Armstrong argued in 2011 that Washington was possibly innocent of both charges. Patricia Bernstein noted in 2006 that Washington's motives have never been clearly established, though he confessed to a dispute about mules with Fryer; she suggests his confession could have been coerced and that there is evidence he had limited intellectual capacity.

Bernstein states that Washington's lynching was unique because of its scale and location, occurring in a larger city with a reputation for progressiveness and attended by 10,000 excited spectators. William Carrigan argues that central Texas's culture had glorified retributive mob violence for decades, explaining how such brutality could be publicly celebrated. Hale posits that Washington's death signaled a transition in lynching, demonstrating its acceptance in modernized cities and how technological innovations could empower mobs but also increase condemnation.

Peter Ehrenhaus and A. Susan Owen compare the lynching to a blood sacrifice, arguing Waco residents felt collective righteousness. Bernstein compares the mob's brutality to the medieval English practice of hanging, drawing, and quartering.

Did You Know?

• Between 1890 and 1920, about 3,000 African Americans were killed by lynch mobs in the Southern United States.
• Lucy Fryer was found clubbed to death on May 8, 1916, at her farm in Robinson, Texas.
• A witness alleged to have seen Washington near the Fryer house a few minutes before Lucy's body was discovered.