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Walker, Zachariah (P-1911)

On August 13, 1911, a mob of allegedly more than 1,000 people lynched a Black man, Zachariah Walker, just outside of the borough of Coatesville, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Walker had been accused of killing a security guard, who was also a former local police officer, at a Coatesville steel mill 2 days earlier. Although more than a dozen people were indicted for Walker's murder, none was convicted at trial. The Walker lynching and resulting acquittals of his killers led to widespread criticism of the local community and outrage across the country, resulting in the involvement of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in antilynching efforts in the decades ahead.

The Coatesville Events

On the evening of Saturday, August 12, 1911, Walker got drunk and fired two shots from a revolver over the heads of two Polish workers from Worth Brothers Steel Works. The noise attracted the attention of a security guard at the steel mill (called a “company policeman”) named Edgar Rice. Rice left the grounds of the Worth Brothers mill and located Walker a short distance away. In the course of arresting Walker, Rice was shot and killed. A posse gathered, and after a lengthy search Walker was taken into custody after allegedly trying to kill himself the following afternoon. Rice, a former Coatesville police officer, was liked and well known in the community. News accounts of the incident failed to mention that Rice—as a security guard—had no legal authority to arrest Walker, as Walker committed no crime in Rice's presence, and that the weapons discharge incident and subsequent arrest of Walker occurred off of Worth Brothers property and outside of Coatesville. Several news accounts mention that Walker claimed that he shot Rice in self-defense, but all made light of the fact that Rice had beaten Walker with his nightstick.

Walker was taken to the Coatesville Hospital, where he was left under the guard of one rookie police officer. News of Walker's capture spread quickly through Coatesville and the surrounding areas, and soon a large mob was parading through Coatesville on the way to the hospital to lynch him, all the while yelling racial epithets directed at Walker. By late evening, the mob had grown to more than 1,000 men, women, and children. They surrounded the hospital, and eventually several went inside and seized Walker, who was cuffed to the bed frame. They grabbed Walker and dragged him—and the bed frame—out of the building, where they were met by a crowd roaring with approval. Walker was then taken a short distance down the road outside the borough where, just out of the jurisdiction of the Coatesville Police, he was heaped upon a fire. What happened next by all accounts was horrific as Walker was burned alive in front of the mob of more than 1,000 onlookers.

News Coverage in The New York Times

On August 15, 1911, an article about the Walker lynching was published in The New York Times, which at that time was considered the national newspaper of record. The article was remarkable for several reasons. First, it was prominently placed—squarely on the front page, with the headline in the center above the fold. Second, the length of the article was noteworthy—it contained almost 4,200 words. Third, the Times published an editorial critical of the barbaric nature of the crime on the very day the first article on the incident appeared in its paper. The editorial stated that nowhere in the country had a man ever been lynched with less justification or with such horror. Fourth, it is striking that on the same day, the newspaper also published several companion stories outlining unrelated incidents of racially motivated crimes across the country, including stories about two lynchings in Oklahoma and the rise of lynchings in the North. Racially motivated crimes of violence were a national concern in the summer of 1911.

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