Jesse Washington

Jesse Washington ( 1898 or 1899 - May 15, 1916 in Waco , Texas ) was an American victim of lynching. The African American , who was convicted of the murder of a white woman, was killed by a mob . The lynching by burning alive, preceded by numerous humiliations, came to be known as the Waco massacre .

background

Washington was a young African American man who lived in Waco, Texas, USA. At the beginning of the 20th century, Texas, like many other southern US states, was regularly the scene of brutal, often racially motivated lynching and racial riots (see Houston, Texas, 1917 or Rosewood, Florida , 1923). When Washington was accused on May 8, 1916 of the murder of the 53-year-old farmer's wife Lucy Fryer from Robinson, Texas, the hostile sentiment of the white population heated up again and finally discharged after Washington's trial on May 15, 1916. His trial had ended quickly; it had taken the (all white) jury only a few minutes to determine the guilt of the accused. Regardless of his young age, Washington was sentenced to death.

incident

Postcard with a photo of the charred body of Jesse Washington (1916). Text: This is the barbecue we had last night. […] Your son, Joe. ("That was our barbecue last night . [...] Your son Joe.")

On the way out of the courthouse, Washington met the anger of the angry crowd that had gathered there. Up to 15,000 people lined the square.

Washington was pushed from the courthouse to City Hall, where a pyre was already being prepared under a tree . Washington was beaten and doused with oil. After he was put at the stake, his fingers, toes, and genitals were cut off. Finally, Washington was hung from the tree hanging over the pyre and lowered into the flames piece by piece. Washington tried to climb the chain, which he could not do without a finger.

After Washington died cruelly, his charred body was dragged around town behind a horse. One participant retained part of Washington's genitals.

Effects

The photographer Fred Gildersleeve took pictures of the lynching and sold them as postcards. In July 1916, he stopped selling because citizens of Wacos had asked him to. They feared bad publicity. The act caused horror throughout the country; the newspaper The Nation and the New York Times condemned the lynching. The civil rights organization National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for a public investigation and clarification of the case. Most Texan newspapers, however, reacted rather cautiously; none of the onlookers involved, including those who prepared the pyre or who otherwise participated in the killing of Washington, were held accountable. Although lynching was illegal in Texas, the bystanders and bailiffs were not prosecuted.

The United States continued to be plagued by racially motivated violence on a scale similar to civil war in the years following the Washington lynching incident, particularly the South with a higher black population.

reception

After Barack Obama's election as US president , documentary filmmaker Carvin Eison asked about the topicality of violent racism in the US . In his film lynchings in the US - The shadows of the past ( Shadows of the Lynching Tree , 2008) describes Eison continued acting racist stereotypes against the background of the case Jesse Washington. Attitudes and experiences of white racists are illustrated with quotes from James Baldwin's story Des Menschen nackte Haut ( Going to Meet the Man , 1965), in which the (white) protagonist nostalgically remembers a lynching in his childhood that was perceived as an initiation experience, the strong resemblance with the assassination of Washington.

Web links

Commons : Jesse Washington - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Patricia Bernstein: The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. Texas A&M University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-58544-544-8 , p. 108.
^ William D. Carrigan: The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916. University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-252-07430-1 , p. 2.
↑ Kristina Durocher: Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South. University Press of Kentucky, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8131-3001-9 , p. 124.
↑ Bruce A. Glasrud: The African American Experience in Texas: at Anthology. 2007, pages 189-91.
↑ Patricia Bernstein: The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. 2005, pages 159-160.
↑ Shadows of the Lynching Tree: Film description ( Memento from February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
↑ vimeo.com: Shadows of the Lynching Tree Trailer
^ Aargauerzeitung.ch: In the shadow of the gallows tree: The long history of American racism

other remarks

↑ Washington was 17 years old at the time of his death

personal data
SURNAME	Washington, Jesse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American victim of lynching
DATE OF BIRTH	1898 or 1899
DATE OF DEATH	May 15, 1916
Place of death	Waco , Texas

[2] Patricia Bernstein: The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. Texas A&M University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-58544-544-8 , p. 108.

[3] William D. Carrigan: The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916. University of Illinois Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-252-07430-1 , p. 2.

[4] Kristina Durocher: Raising Racists: The Socialization of White Children in the Jim Crow South. University Press of Kentucky, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8131-3001-9 , p. 124.

[5] Bruce A. Glasrud: The African American Experience in Texas: at Anthology. 2007, pages 189-91.

[pb159-6] Patricia Bernstein: The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP. 2005, pages 159-160.

[7] Shadows of the Lynching Tree: Film description ( Memento from February 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

[8] vimeo.com: Shadows of the Lynching Tree Trailer

[9] Aargauerzeitung.ch: In the shadow of the gallows tree: The long history of American racism

[1] Washington was 17 years old at the time of his death