Jesse Washington Lynching Essay

Another controversial lynching was the lynching of Jesse Washington. Washington was a 17 year old black boy who worked for farmers in Waco, Texas. On May 8th 1916, Washington was arrested for the murder of fifty-three-year-old Lucy Fryer, the wife of the white farmer he worked for. Washington confessed to raping and murdering Mrs. Fryer and was immediately transferred to the Dallas country Jail where McLennan county sheriff Samuel S. Fleming took care of him. Fleming wanted to prevent potential mob violence from happening, “at least until the accused could have his day in court” (SoRelle). The trial of Jesse Washing was on May 15. The jury of twelve white men “deliberated for only four minutes before returning a guilty verdict against the defendant and

A chain was wrapped around Washington 's neck, and he was dragged toward City Hall, where another group was waiting for him with a bonfire (SoRelle).
Once there, Washington was thrown “onto a pile of dry-goods boxes under a tree” and coal oil was poured all over his body (SoRelle). The chain around Washington 's neck was thrown over a branch of a tree (SoRelle). Several men had to work together to pull the teen up in the air before “lowering his body onto the pile of combustibles and igniting a fire” (SoRelle). His fingers were amputated for souvenirs and his fingernails taken for keepsakes (Goodwyn). Two hours after the burning of his corpse, Washington’s body was placed into a cloth bag and tied to the back of a car. The car drove the corpse to Robinson where “where they hung the sack from a pole in front of a blacksmith 's shop for public viewing” (SoRelle). After a few hours, “Constable Les Stegall retrieved the remains and turned them over to a Waco undertaker for burial” (SoRelle). No members of the Waco mob were ever prosecuted. In response to the lynching, “the National