After the practice of lynching was suppressed in central Texas, it received little attention from local historians. However, Waco developed a reputation for racism—propagated in part by American history textbooks—to the vexation of the city's white residents. In the years following the lynching, African Americans often held Waco in disdain, and some viewed the 1953 Waco tornado outbreak as divine retribution. White leaders of Waco took a non-violent approach in response to demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement, possibly owing to a desire to avoid stigmatizing the city again.