Zachariah Walker was a young African-American common laborer from Virginia who came to Coatesville to work in Worth Brother Steel, one of Coatesville's two steel mills.
Walker stood accused of shooting Edgar Rice, a white police officer, after a brief scuffle in downtown Coatesville.
After shooting the officer Walker immediately fled the scene but was arrested the next day and taken to the hospital to get treatment for a gun shot wound he received while being captured.
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| Pennsylvania historic marker commemorating officer Edgar Rice's death and Zachariah Walker's lynching placed by the side of Route 82 just south of Coatesville in 2006 |
The following day two dozen townsfolk, angry about the death of a respected police officer at the hands of a black man, descended on the hospital where Walker lay handcuffed to his hospital bed. The mob pushed the lone guard protecting the prisoner aside, seized Walker and dragged him into the hills of East Fallowfield Township, south of Coatesville.
A bonfire was built and Walker tossed on the flames to die. Over the next 30 minutes, as thousands of townsfolk looked on, Walker escaped the flames three times. Finally, after his third escape attempt, the mob placed a rope around Walker's neck pinning him in the fire and ensuring his horrible death.
Walker's last words were, "Don't give me no crooked death because I'm not white."
In that long history the lynching of Zachariah Walker stands as a seminal moment, not just for our region but for the United States as well. Walker's death was the last lynching of an African American in Pennsylvania and some say the entire northeast United States. The incident brought national exposure to Coatesville, gave rise to the NAACP, then an organization just a year old, and led to anti-lynching laws throughout the country.
Today we pause to remember this tragic, but historically significant event.
We remember Edgar Rice, the Coatesville policeman killed in the line of duty, as well as Zachariah Walker, whose life was taken not by the American justice system, but by a vigilante mob intent of extracting the last gruesome ounce of revenge.
We remember this horrible chapter of our past to remind us of our obligation as both Americans and followers of Christ, to live, as Abraham Lincoln said in his first Inaugural address, up to the "better angels of our nature."
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory ... will yet swell ... when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.To read more about the tragic death of Edgar Rice and Zachariah Walker and the Remembrance and Reconciliation events planned in Coatesville today you can click here (the audio about the lynching starts at the 26:30 mark), here and here.
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| Rice's simple gravestone at the Hephzibah Baptist Church along Strasburg Road in East Fallowfield. (photo courtesy of Genealogical Gems blog) |
2 comments:
Zach Walker was a less than a model citizen, having been arrested more than once prior to arriving in Coatesville. To memorialize him, whether with a plaque or speech or whatever, is a travesty! Officer Rice is the one who should be remembered, not Walker. While Walker's death should not be forgotten, it certainly should not be memorialized! The city of Coatesville should use this event to bring about a change in race relations, perhaps with a Community Day. Use this to educate young people about racial inequality, race relations, racial profiling, etc. This would help to take some of the stain off of the city! You have to crawl before you can walk!
Whether Walker was a model citizen or not, never does that make what happened to him even remotely acceptable. We have a justice system for a reason. Burning a man alive is beyond horrific. Officer Rice was a true hero, as a police officer who stands up to protect the rights of others. But that still doesn't justify the killing of Walker. How would Rice feel to have known that his killer was burned alive by a lynch mob? I would strongly doubt that as a man of the law, he would have condoned such a thing. While Walkers actions should not be memoralized, the events of that day clearly resulted in a change for our state and our country. And or that, I feel that having a plaque is definitely acceptable and needed. I am grateful that the Daily Local did a story on this today. Even as a resident of East Fallowfield, I was completely unaware of these tragic events. Coatesville has much healing to do, but in order to heal we all need to examine the past and try our best to learn from it.
- a white resident of East Fallowfield
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