Chester County Leaders Remember Lynching of Zachariah Walker

COATESVILLE, PA — Leaders from around Chester County and the Coatesville area gathered recently to remember the tragic lynching of a local man more than 100 years ago.

Zachariah Walker was lynched and burned alive on Aug. 13, 1911 at the Greater Deliverance Church in Coatesville on Route 82.

State Sen. Andy Dinniman was joined by the Coatesville Ministerial Alliance, Merion Friends Meeting, Coatesville Greater Deliverance Church, the Coatesville NAACP, and others for the event.

“We cannot forget that lynching took place here. Not in the deep south, but here in Chester County,” Dinniman said. “It starts with prejudice and then it becomes discrimination and prejudice in action. And then what happens is, if no one stands up, it becomes institutionalized. It is tolerated. You see, we had lynchings like what happened here, but no one was ever convicted or faced real punishment for the crime.”

As part of the event, organizers took soil from the lynching site and placed it in two jars, Dinniman's office said. One jar is to be kept in Chester County, while the other will be held to be placed at the forthcoming Equal Justice Initiative Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.

Images courtesy Chris Baker Evans. Photo 1: State Sen. Dinniman (center left) looks on as Apostle Bobby Duncan, Founder and Pastor of Greater Deliverance Church in Coatesville (right), digs soil from the site of the lynching of Zachariah Walker to be preserved in the Equal Justice Initiative museum planned for Montgomery, Alabama. Also, pictured (to the far left) is Everett Butcher. Photo by Chris Baker Evans. Photo 2: State Sen. Dinniman and members of the Coatesville Ministerial Alliance, Merion Friends Meeting, Coatesville Greater Deliverance Church, and the Coatesville NAACP display the two jars of soil from the site of the lynching of Zachariah Walker to be preserved in posterity. Photo by Chris Baker Evans.