Anybody know about the Waco horror?

Question

I can't believe that it's a true story. What the hell were these people thinking? I mean the mob that has taken part in the lynching.

Answer 1

What I find difficult to comprehend is that no one in the mob was ever charged, let alone convicted, of mutilating and murdering Jesse Washington.

Answer 2

It's not too surprising that in 1916 a vigilante mob composed of white bystanders lynched Jessie Washington. After all, this was a long time before Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird"! Although the foreman of the all-white jury criticized police for failing to prevent the hanging, and the Baylor University all-white faculty passed resolutions condemning the event, the tragedy perhaps foreshadowed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s since Waco until after World War II was very much a stereotypical, small Southern town with separate schools, separate rest rooms, and separate water fountains for Anglo- and African Americans.

In 2006, Lester Gibson, a County Commissioner for McLennan County, successfully prodded his fellow commissioners to issue a public apology for this incident. Lots of letters from presumably white readers poured into the Waco Tribune Herald that commented on the absurdity of such an apology, however, primarily because anyone alive today would have been an infant in 1916.

It's also not surprising that you can't believe the mob's reaction. I teach in the Waco ISD, and my students don't believe me when I tell them that Waco public schools weren't fully integrated until federal law ordered the busing of minority students outside of their immediate neighborhoods in 1970, 14 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education.

Answer 3

I'd never read about this until you asked this question, so thank you. It gave me a chance to read about yet another atrocity people suffered through in the early 1900s.
Truth be known, many people suffered during this time. Life -- not people -- were very different at that time. Life affects people, though -- their attitudes, integrity, reactions, and yep, their justifying of unjust deeds. A person always wants to believe he/she is a good person, and will justify behavior so that he/she can continue to perpetrate this belief.
Example: A person with a video-recorder, too scared to help a defenseless victim, will record the show for the sake of showing it to the authorities later, yet will not try to lift a finger to help the victim, fearing of becoming a victim.
As to the mob... There's a saying I once heard. I think it goes, "A PERSON is smart; but a group of PEOPLE are dumb."
Look up Mob Psychology to get a better understanding of what these people were thinking....