Common Sense

I was going to write a whole post about the lynching resolution here in McLennan County yesterday, but I got hung up by work and a bad headache. I guess I saved myself from writing about the same thing twice because there is another story today: The County Commissioners have reached a compromise.
The ongoing tug […]

The saga continues. McLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson has threatened to sue to get the unanimously adopted resolution apologizing for the lynchings of the past put up next to a depiction of Waco’s old hanging tree in a mural in the courthouse rotunda.
“That is certainly an option,” Gibson said after Tuesday’s commissioners’ meeting. “If they […]

As promised, County Commissioner Gibson proposed that the unanimously adopted resolution decrying the atrocity that was lynching be displayed in the courthouse next to a mural of Waco’s infamous hanging tree. As promised, the other commissioners turned him down flat.
The court voted 3-1 to deny a proposal by Precinct 2 Commissioner Lester Gibson to place […]

After much trying of our collective patience, the McLennan County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution condemning the lynchings that were a common occurence in Waco at one time. Lynchings like the death of Jesse Washington, as recounted in the book The First Waco Horror.
The McLennan County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution today that […]

Waco has another dirty little secret, albeit an open one: The lynching of Jesse Washington.
Exactly 90 years ago Monday, Washington was found guilty of raping and murdering the wife of the farmer he worked for, a white woman. He was dragged from the courthouse while he was butchered. His fingers were cut off as souvenirs. […]