Official Texas Historical Marker: The Lynching of Jesse Washington

In the July 1916 issue of The Crisis, editor and founding member of the NAACP, W.E.B. Du Bois, published a photo essay called “The Waco Horror” that featured brutal images of the 1916 lynching of Jesse Washington. Jesse Washington was a 17-year-old Black teen who was beaten, mutilated, tortured and, lynched by a white mob that accused him of murder. “Over half the population of Waco men, women and children with picnic lunches viewed this as a spectacle and enjoyed it as entertainment,” said Community Race Relations Coalition Director Jo Welter. Welter says Washington was just one of many African Americans who were lynched in Waco around that time”. Over a hundred years later, the City of Waco, the McLennan County Historical Commission, the Community Race Relations Coalition and numerous NAACP Texas Branches gathered for a dedication ceremony recognizing “The Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington” with an Official Texas Historical Marker. NAACP-SA Executive Committee members Lou Miller and Shaune Gross were in attendance.