Lynching of Zachariah Walker - Coatesville, PA
N 39° 58.261 W 075° 49.907
18S E 428968 N 4424871
A horrible and sad event happened here which inflamed the national conscious against injustice and furthered the cause of Civil Rights in the United States.
Waymark Code: WMACYN
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 12/28/2010
Views: 8
This roadside, Chester County marker was erected in 2006 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. In Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1911, a black man named Zack Walker was burned alive for killing a white steel mill cop. They dragged him from the hospital, still chained to his bedstead, and burned him to death in front of thousands of witnesses in a field south of the city. No one was convicted of the crime. When he staggered from the pyre, a mass of flames, with rakes they shoved him back in.
shocked the nation and prompted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to investigate and called for an end to lynching nationwide. The NAACP also established local chapters in Coatesville, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia as a result of the Walker lynching.
I found the article in the The Coatesville Record which reported the lynching. They wrote "Everything was quiet and orderly around the fire if such a thing can be said of a lynching. There was no loud talking, no profanity, and the utmost deference shown to hundreds of women who came to the scene. Men stepped back as the women came forward and led them to points of vantage where they could obtain the best view of the burning Negro." I saw a picture of the townspeople looking over the man's burnt body, and every last one of them were smiling at the camera. It is a despicable and disturbing sight.
The text of the marker reads:
An African American steelworker, Walker was burned to death by a mob near here on August 13, 1911. He was accused of killing Edgar Rice, a white security guard and a former borough policeman. Fifteen local men and teenage boys were indicted for their involvement in Walker's death but were acquitted of all charges. Nationwide outrage led to the NAACP's national anti-lynching campaign and inspired Pennsylvania's 1923 anti-lynching law.
The official PHMP site is HERE
Another site about the marker is HERE