WACO, Texas(AP) — Nearly a century after a black teenager was stabbed, burned and hangedin front of some 15,000 Waco residents, some black residents are calling forthe city to make amends.
The slayingwas just one of the 4,700 lynchings in the South from the late 1800s to early1900s, but it was one of the few photographed in progress, capturing images ofa mob dragging 17-year-old Jesse Washington from the courthouse, cutting himwith knives and dangling him over a fire.
Newspapersreferred to the 1916 killing as the “Waco horror” after the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People’s magazine published anarticle and the rare pictures, now displayed in the National Civil RightsMuseum in Memphis, Tenn.
Two newbooks have renewed interest in the case and spurred calls for the city toapologize to the black community or erect a historical marker.
“I thinkit’s appropriate. I think it’s time … because if we don’t address things, wenever get healed,” said Michael Babers, a black minister.
Cityofficials did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
Three yearsago, county commissioners rejected a request to create a plaque to explain acourthouse painting of Waco history that includes a tree with a noose.
Houstonauthor Patricia Bernstein, who wrote “The First Waco Horror: The Lynching ofJesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP,” said Wednesday that she wanted tohelp residents start a dialogue about how the city should address the lynching,which happened after Washington was convicted of raping and killing a whitewoman.
