Remembering Zachariah Walker, 1911 Coatesville Lynching Victim

Join us on August 13th as we shine a light on our shared history, and learn about the tragedy of Zachariah Walker & Edgar Rice.

We will begin our remembrance by having a burial service for Zachariah Walker. Ministers from different faiths will conduct the service.

We will then proceed to Gateway Church where lunch will be provided. Participants will be able to look at displays and videos from many different local organizations during the lunch hour.

After lunch, we will commemorate the events of August 13th through the words and thoughts of local leaders.

Participants are also welcome to be part of an interactive forum, discussing those events and putting them in context. There will also be music and singing and a sociodrama.

Zachariah Walker was a victim of a lynching in Coatesville in 1911. We will learn together in hopes of overcoming hatred and violence through the strength of community. August 13th 2025 will mark the 114th anniversary of the event. Below is a detailed account of the lynching and its context, prepared by professors of history emeritus Dennis B Downey Ph.D, and Charles Hardy III Ph.D.

We’re co-sponsoring the event officially titled The Together Endowment’s Third Annual Senator Andy Dinniman Community Gathering, with The Together Endowment and the Coatesville Area Ministerium.

Transportation from Coatesville to the event will be available, although the details are still in progress. Please register for more information.

Maya Angelou describes the essential focus if we are to achieve a diverse, but united America. As we mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, her quote is especially meaningful. Each generation of Americans, including our own, must look at the Declaration to celebrate its successes, while at the same confronting its failure to make its aspirational words that we are all created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights a reality for each and every American. We deeply care about our nation and dedicate ourselves to helping it meet the Declaration’s aspirational goals.

This can only be achieved if we have the courage needed to face our history and understand the role that race has played in the American experience. The brutal lynching of Zachariah Walker shows the need and provides the impetus to have this courageous conversation. You see, whether as an individual or a community, the past is never completely past and racial reconciliation and national unity depends on understanding the impact of the past. What Maya Angelou is saying, you cannot rewrite history to make it look different but you must have the courage to face and understand it, so that it doesn't happen again.

You will find on this website, a history of the 1911 lynching as well as a potential lynching in1938, out of which the Coatesville NAACP was formed.

Zachariah Walker was burned to death and the crowd of several thousand watched as he was thrown back into the fire three times. He was never given a proper burial and that burial will finally take place, 114 years after the August 13th lynching with the Coatesville Area Ministerium officiating. In the afternoon at Gateway Church we will gather to comprehend how race played a role in lynching and the dynamic behind lynching that have resulted in the death of over 4,000 African Americans. In the early evening, there will be a walk to the lynch site, with a brief Service of Remembrance. Please join us for all or any of the Remembrance Day events.

We understand that Zachariah Walker and the person he was accused of killing, police officer Edgar Rice, were both victims of August 13 1911. As a recognition of the humanity of both and of all people, following the burial, a delegation will go to Rice's gravesite to put flowers on his grave. It is good that Edgar Rice and all the police officers who died in the line of duty are remembered in a ceremony each year by the Chester County Fraternal Order of Police.

Zachariah Walker received no burial, was killed by a lynch mob, denied a fair trial, and it's time that we face the horrors of lynching and fully recognize the humanity of Zachariah and others who were lynched. It's time to courageously face our shared American history and to reaffirm in America that mob violence will not be tolerated and that every American has a right to a fair burial and a proper burial. That is the purpose of the August 13th Zachariah Walker Remembrance Day. Join us in this affirmation.

This event is being co-hosted by us, the Coatesville Area Branch of the NAACP, the Togetherness Endowment, and the Coatesville Ministerium.

Info: Church of Christ at Ercildoun, 750 Doe Run Rd, Coatesville, PA 19320

Info: Gateway Church, 160 Cowan Rd, Parkesburg, PA 19365

Host or Publisher Coatesville Area Branch of the NAACP