Inside The Coatesville Lynching

“A compelling narrative that moves crisply through the murder, the lynching, and the cover-up by silence that local residents thereafter affected.”—The Journal of American History On a warm August night in 1911, Zachariah Walker was lynched—burned alive—by an angry mob on the outskirts of Coatesville, a prosperous Pennsylvania steel town. At the time of his very public murder, Walker, an African American millworker, was under arrest for the shooting and killing of a respected local police officer. Investigated by the NAACP, the horrific incident garnered national and international attention. Despite this scrutiny, a conspiracy of silence shrouded the events, and the accused men and boys were found not guilty at trial. More than 100 years after the lynching, authors Dennis B. Downey and Raymond M. Hyser bring new insight to events that rocked a community.

This book is a fresh look at this crime that took place in 1911 in Coatesville PA. A remarkable story written in a chronological sequence of events as they unfolded. Examinations of Grand Jury Testimony along with actual hearings reveal contributing factors that played a major part in the tragedy. A new paradigm begins when the actions of the Zachariah Walker, the killer, before and after the shooting of Edgar Rice present an alternative perspective on the story. The book reveals new information; the motive of the killer was self-preservation he had killed another man prior to his encounter with Rice and in order to avoid being arrested and facing punishment for the first killing he decided to kill the officer. Also revealed is his criminal history in Pennsylvania; in 1906 he was arrested for trying to shot two elderly black women, his sister provides more criminal background and the other men from Virginia who are also migrant laborers of the steel mill provide information on his crimes and prison record in that state. A totally new concept is uncovered showing Walker as a career criminal on a drunken crime spree that continued after he killed Officer Rice before he was apprehended. Uncovering the motivation for killing Rice as an attempt to escape detection of a previous murder he had committed brings a new mindset to the incident. In 1911 a negro wagon driver for a steel mill in Coatesville PA spent his day and evening drinking; that evening he attempted to rob two men at gun point, firing his pistol at them. Officer Edgar Rice a policeman for Worth Brothers mill and a commissioned office responded to the shots fired. A confrontation followed and Zachariah Walker shot and killed the officer. The killer went on the run for the next day while continuing his crime spree; robbing, assaulting and attempting another murder of a local man. When a posse finally found him, he attempted suicide; it failed and he was taken into custody. His wounds were treated and he was placed in the Coatesville hospital. Later on August 13, 1911 an angry mob breached the hospital, seized the prisoner still shackled to his bed and lynched him by burning him on a pyre a half mile from the hospital. The new book Inside the Coatesville Lynching explores the incident in depth using old newspaper articles and court testimony the author uncovers new information on the criminal background of the killer that weighs into rage which led to the lynching. The book includes the confession of Walker and the testimony of the Chief of Police, Officer Howe who was left in charge of the prisoner at the hospital and several other people including Officer Rice's son, Vincent. Though the work does not exonerate the mob these new facts will let the reader understand the outrage that a community felt when they were faced with the information that this man admitted to a previous murder he committed and had now struck again, bragging that he was quicker on the draw than Rice and that he had killed him easy. Attorney W. MacElree in his book Side Lights on the Bench and Bar of Chester County, 1919 said "On August 12, 1911, Zachariah Walker committed a horrible crime. On August 13, 1911 Zachariah Walker suffered a horrible punishment". Walker was taken from the hospital on 8/13/1911 and killed in a burning lynching.

The history of lynching and mob violence has become a subject of considerable scholarly and public interest in recent years. Popular works by James Allen, Philip Dray, and Leon Litwack have stimulated new interest in the subject. A generation of new scholars, sparked by these works and earlier monographs, are in the process of both enriching and challenging the traditional narrative of lynching in the United States. This volume contains essays by ten scholars at the forefront of the movement to broaden and deepen our understanding of mob violence in the United States. These essays range from the Reconstruction to World War Two, analyze lynching in multiple regions of the United States, and employ a wide range of methodological approaches. The authors explore neglected topics such as: lynching in the Mid-Atlantic, lynching in Wisconsin, lynching photography, mob violence against southern white women, black lynch mobs, grassroots resistance to racial violence by African Americans, nineteenth century white southerners who opposed lynching, and the creation of 'lynching narratives' by southern white newspapers. This book was first published as a special issue of American Nineteenth Century History

The End of American Lynching questions how we think about the dynamics of lynching, what lynchings mean to the society in which they occur, how lynching is defined, and the circumstances that lead to lynching. Ashraf H. A. Rushdy looks at three lynchings over the course of the twentieth century—one in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, in 1911, one in Marion, Indiana, in 1930, and one in Jasper, Texas, in 1998—to see how Americans developed two distinct ways of thinking and talking about this act before and after the 1930s. One way takes seriously the legal and moral concept of complicity as a way to understand the dynamics of a lynching; this way of thinking can give us new perceptions into the meaning of mobs and the lynching photographs in which we find them. Another way, which developed in the 1940s and continues to influence us today, uses a strategy of denial to claim that lynchings have ended. Rushdy examines how the denial of lynching emerged and developed, providing insight into how and why we talk about lynching the way we do at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In doing so, he forces us to confront our responsibilities as American citizens and as human beings.

This exploration of the effects of lynching in the U.S. speaks powerfully to us in these times that have witnessed the creation of the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Nearly five thousand black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960, and the effects of this racial trauma continue to resound. Inspired by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and drawing on techniques of restorative justice, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, offers concrete ways for communities to heal. She also issues a clarion call for communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy. This revised edition speaks powerfully to us in these times that have witnessed the creation of the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. e new foreword from Bryan Stevenson helps readers to better understand contemporary struggles and come to terms with the legacy of racial terror in the United States. In a new afterword, Ifill reflects on the recent strides made throughout the country to break the silence surrounding lynching and to recognize the victims of violence.Th

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The history of lynching and mob violence has become a subject of considerable scholarly and public interest in recent years. Popular works by James Allen, Philip Dray, and Leon Litwack have stimulated new interest in the subject. A generation of new scholars, sparked by these works and earlier monographs, are in the process of both enriching and challenging the traditional narrative of lynching in the United States. This volume contains essays by ten scholars at the forefront of the movement to broaden and deepen our understanding of mob violence in the United States. These essays range from the Reconstruction to World War Two, analyze lynching in multiple regions of the United States, and employ a wide range of methodological approaches. The authors explore neglected topics such as: lynching in the Mid-Atlantic, lynching in Wisconsin, lynching photography, mob violence against southern white women, black lynch mobs, grassroots resistance to racial violence by African Americans, nineteenth century white southerners who opposed lynching, and the creation of 'lynching narratives' by southern white newspapers. This book was first published as a special issue of American Nineteenth Century History

In recent decades, scholars have explored much of the history of mob violence in the American South, especially in the years after Reconstruction. However, the lynching violence that occurred in American regions outside the South, where hundreds of persons, including Hispanics, whites, African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans died at the hands of lynch mobs, has received less attention. This collection of essays by prominent and rising scholars fills this gap by illuminating the factors that distinguished lynching in the West, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic. The volume adds to a more comprehensive history of American lynching and will be of interest to all readers interested in the history of violence across the varied regions of the United States. Contributors are Jack S. Blocker Jr., Brent M. S. Campney, William D. Carrigan, Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Dennis B. Downey, Larry R. Gerlach, Kimberley Mangun, Helen McLure, Michael J. Pfeifer, Christopher Waldrep, Clive Webb, and Dena Lynn Winslow.