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| Postcard photo of the crowd at the lynching of Jesse Washington |
Note: This post first appeared as a diary at Daily Kos on May 18, 2011. It was deleted without my knowledge, permission, or consent. It was written by me, it is my intellectual property and work product, and I retain copyright. On the penultimate day of Black History Month and a day after the second anniversary of the lynching of another seventeen-year-old Black man, Trayvon Martin, It is posted here with very minor edits.
First, a warning. What follows below the fold are very blunt, very graphic depictions and descriptions of lynching in the United States. If these depictions will cause too much distress, do not read further.
Second, an admonition. The purpose of this diary is to bear witness. It is not "violence porn" offered for prurient interest. If that is your reason for reading, please move along. I will not engage on this deadly serious topic in that manner.
Third, an apology. I have found it impossible to depersonalize this subject. What follows, then, is simply a deeply personal recording of my own attempt, now 98 years later, to remember Jesse Washington, and to accord his life and death the respect they deserve.
