They Want to Ignore This: White Supremacist Terrorism
A well-researched book by Patricia Bernstein called, “The First Waco Horror” provided detailed descriptions about the lynching and burning of African American Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas. This was white supremacy at work and something they want us to forget. It is amazing that they want people of color to forget their pain, but white supremacists will not forget the Alamo and the slave owners that died there. Some 15 to 20 thousand racist whites gathered to participate and watch with glee the brutal killing of Jesse Washington.
Patricia Bernstein describes Waco, Texas as a place that prided itself on its “civilized nature,” but nothing could be further from the truth as a mob of white racist killers burned a man to death. The city residents according to Bernstein widely regarded their city as a city of refinement and culture. What a joke, but typical of racists to invent falsehoods. These descriptions made outsiders “envy the pleasant place” of Waco that numbered some 30,000 residents at the time Jesse Washington was burned at the stake in the middle of downtown Waco.
Thousands of whites rushed to the scene of the lynching after a mob removed him from the courthouse in Waco. Jesse Washington was taken to a tree with a chain around his neck and tangled in the air. Under that tree they put flammable items that was to be used to burn Jesse Washington to death. When being dangled in the air, Jesse Washington was stabbed in the back of the neck. This wound was apparently not enough to kill him and coal was poured over him to make him a human candle. Members of the racist mob all began fighting for positions from which to throw their matches to ignite Jesse Washington. Small boys climbed trees to get a better view and thought it fun sport by their expressions in photos from the event. Racist savages were at work.
Jesse Washington’s body was raised and lowered into the fire as one would raise and lower a puppet on a string. According to reports, Jesse Washington “managed at one point during the burning to kick himself free.” There were reports of well-dressed white ladies that clapped as Jesse Washington cried out in terror as the flames engulfed his body. Everyone enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the hanging and burning. A short time later a man on a horse roped what was left of the body and dragged it around the center of town waving his hat in the air like a lunatic. This resulted in Washington’s head being knocked off. Several boys extracted the teeth and sold them for five dollars to racist onlookers. Pictures of the hanging were placed on postcards and sold in barber shops. The rest of the body was tied behind a car and dragged to another town and placed on a telephone pole.
This was white American racist terrorism at its best, something that some white Americans want to ignore. But happen it did, and the collective memory of such acts cannot be erased by those who want to pretend that it is not a horror to be remembered. Some years back, County Commissioner Lester Gibson in Waco tried to get the county to apologize for the actions of Waco citizens and elected officials who stood by and let the mob murder Jesse Washington. According to Bernstein, not one of the four white county commissioners would second this motion. Savages! White supremacists want to return to this and prevent us from knowing their horrible history.
