Thousands gathered in front of Waco City Hall on May 15, 1916, to watch the torture and lynching by fire of Jesse Washington, who was convicted a few days after the murder of Lucy Fryer, the white wife of a nearby farmer.

　　On May 15, 1916, thousands gathered in front of Waco City Hall to watch the torture and burning lynching of convicted murderer Jesse Washington, just days after the murder of Lucy Fryer, the white wife of a nearby farmer. Photographs of the lynching led to widespread condemnation of the event as a "Waco horror." The incident marked a turning point in the national anti-lynching movement and brought the nation's oldest civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was formed in 1909, into the limelight. It was estimated that as many as 15,000 to 20,000 white crowds were present at Jesse Washington's lynching. They screamed and cheered as they watched Jesse Washington stabbed, beaten, and eventually burned to death.

　

Around dusk on May 8, 1916, Lucy Fryer, the white wife of a cotton farmer near Robinson, was found clubbed to death lying in the doorway of the farm's seed shed. At the grisly scene, which also showed signs of sexual assault, authorities determined that a blunt instrument was used as the murder weapon. Jesse Washington, a young black man who could not read or write, had been working with his brother as a hired hand for the Fryer family for several months.

　Washington was wearing a bloody undershirt and pants; by the evening of May 8, Washington was arrested. Following his arrest, Washington was transferred to the Hillsboro Jail. McLennan County Sheriff Samuel Fleming ruled Washington a suspect after hearing rumors of mob violence. In an initial interview, Washington denied all involvement, saying, "I didn't do it. "Torture through the early morning hours of May 9 eventually led to Washington's confession that he raped and killed Lucy Fryer in the early morning hours of May 9.

　Only a week after Lucy Fryer's murder, Jesse Washington's trial began in a packed courtroom in the McLennan County Courthouse with Judge Richard Munroe presiding. Jury selection and preliminary proceedings were swift, and the prosecution's arguments included testimony from the medical examiner, sheriff's deputies, and investigators. Before the trial began, someone attempted to kill Washington inside the courthouse and was eventually subdued. The defendants stated that only Washington himself was on the stand and had nothing further to add. After an estimated four minutes of deliberation, the all-white jury returned a guilty verdict.

　On May 15, after the verdict, the courtroom was violently shaken, and a group of rioters seized Washington and quickly exited the courtroom. As Washington and his captors emerged onto the back steps of the courthouse, they were greeted by the mob that had gathered in downtown Waco for the trial. There were shouts and cheers and screams of "Get him, get him!" Chains were placed around Washington's neck and he was dragged to a place just outside City Hall where they were gathering to cremate him. As the crowd surged in, they tried to attack Washington, tearing off his clothes, stabbing him with knives, and beating him with bricks, clubs, and shovels; for an hour the chains dragging Washington were thrown over a tree, and coal oil was poured over his body as it was raised and lowered into the flames. As Washington's body burned, his body was further dismembered. By mid-afternoon, there was little left of Washington's body but his charred skull and torso. That afternoon, officials took his remains and buried them in an unmarked pauper's cemetery. News of the lynching of Jesse Washington spread throughout the state and around the world.