On August 8, 1905, Sank Majors, an African American man, was lynched from the bridge after a mob broke him out of the McLennan County jail. Majors had been convicted of raping a white woman from the area, but his lawyer filed a motion for a new trial, claiming his previous trial had been unfair. Fearing that a mistake would be made during the new trial, and not wanting to wait any longer for his execution, a mob of Waco citizens unjustly decided to take the matter into their own hands.