His arrest, trial, conviction, and execution are considered an example of continued bigotry in the Texas judicial system of the 1920s, but also of reforms aimed at curbing mob violence and public lynching.
Racial tensions in the town were high and reached a fever pitch in 1916 with the public lynching of Jesse Washington, who had been accused and summarily convicted of murdering a white woman.
[3] In December 1921, Waco and 54th District Judge Richard I. Munroe gave a speech in which he condemned mob violence, declaring that all those who participated in lynching were themselves guilty of murder.
On May 27, a neighbor kidnapped Jesse Thomas, a black service car driver, who was then declared to be Bolton's killer and murdered by local Sam Harris.
[9] Waco mayor Ben C. Richards and Sheriff Stegall publicly announced their intention to protect Mitchell from mob violence until his execution.
[13] Historian Patricia Bernstein has argued that Mitchell's protection from lynching and legal execution, while judicially flawed, demonstrated the effectiveness of the NAACP's anti-lynching campaign.