In case you’re wondering, the photo is of the lynching-by-fire of 17-year-old Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, which went down in history as the “Waco Horror” and helped launch the NAACP’s anti-lynching campaign. This African-American teenager worked for a white farmer, was convicted of killing the farmer’s wife in a sham trial, then carted away from the courthouse by a mob of 10,000 white citizens and burned to death. Postcards of his fiery death and mutilated body were circulated throughout the country bearing such legends as “We had a BBQ this week.” Yes, this was a century ago, and none of the participants or gawkers are still alive (we can hope that Washington’s torturers are burning in Hell, if you believe in that sort of thing), but before anyone gets too holier-than-thou about what ISIS just did let us remember that Americans did this sort of thing long before ISIS came along which makes some of our forbears no better than they are.
In case you’re wondering, the photo is of the lynching-by-fire of 17-year-old Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916, which went down in history as the “Waco Horror” and helped launch the NAACP’s anti-lynching campaign. This African-American teenager worked for a white farmer, was convicted of killing the farmer’s wife in a sham trial, then carted away from the courthouse by a mob of 10,000 white citizens and burned to death. Postcards of his fiery death and mutilated body were circulated throughout the country bearing such legends as “We had a BBQ this week.” Yes, this was a century ago, and none of the participants or gawkers are still alive (we can hope that Washington’s torturers are burning in Hell, if you believe in that sort of thing), but before anyone gets too holier-than-thou about what ISIS just did let us remember that Americans did this sort of thing long before ISIS came along which makes some of our forbears no better than they are.
Of course, if you’re Barack Obama, you can’t mention that Christian terrorists behave just like Muslim terrorists …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-speech-at-prayer-breakfast-called-offensive-to-christians/2015/02/05/6a15a240-ad50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html