The legacy of the murder of James Byrd Jr - BBC News

it is extremely hard to go back to jasper just seeing the city limits of jasper texas the trees caving in and seeing a long rugged road would just bring back the memories one of the worst hate crimes this nation has ever seen bird was kidnapped and then tied behind a pickup truck and dragged for nearly three miles in the east texas city of jasper all because he was black the legacy of a gruesome hate crime still haunts this small texas town their lives changed forever on june 7th the day of byrd's murder they're not words described just how bad this was we learned that there was a great deal of prejudice in our community that we kind of swept under the rug and it changed one family forever this was 23 years ago but it still seemed like yesterday this generation they don't know about james byrd jr the black man that was dragged behind a pickup truck i would describe my dad as witty the life of the party and very free-spirited [Music] the day before my dad was brutally murdered he wasn't himself i don't know if he felt something i was actually in basic training and my sergeants woke me up and told me you know i had a phone call and it was pretty important the phone rang and i heard my sister just scream when i heard her scream she hit the wall and she said daddy it's something you don't want to never get a phone call for i tell you like that on a saturday night in june 1998 james bird jr caught a ride with three white men in jasper texas they drove him down a dark country road beat him then chained him alive to a pickup truck and dragged his body for three miles until he was decapitated a black boy found the body on his way to church and he called the sheriff's department because it was outside of the city limits the sheriff immediately called the fbi in for backup but it didn't take long for the news to spread through town he took the ministers out there and showed us and we saw where the teeth were and where the baseball cap was and and where the arm and the head were and it was horrible he wanted us to know as much as he knew so that we could tell our people are you a white supremacist sir are you a white supremacist the day after the murder police arrested john william king russell brewer and sean allen barry we believe that bill king wanted to start a kkk group in this community and needed to do something phenomenal earth-shattering because bill was a brilliant kid but he was evil it was jasper there was not a lot of hard news there there was not a lot of controversy there it had a large population of african americans living in jasper so it would have been the last place in east texas that i would have thought this would happen over the last two decades reporter angel san juan covered how the town of jasper has tried to move on from the tragedy the town was horrified and from the beginning it was important for jasper to say that hey we're not all like that [Music] the klan decided to come in the new black panthers decided to come in authorities are facing their greatest challenge controlling the situation now when the klan is trying to leave the scene and black militia groups are trying to confront them [Music] but what they did is the local folks they stayed away the ministers in jasper of all faiths came together and they led the community we need prayer for healing and we want everyone black white hispanic everyone we learned that there was a great deal of prejudice in our community that we kind of swept under the rug and not everyone in the town wanted to face that reality there were a few people that would almost try to blame mr byrd no one deserves to die that way [Music] we weren't going to change people by arguing we were going to change them by how we lived our lives you can still see the tree line that divided the white part from the black cemetery the jasper city cemetery was still segregated it was divided there was a white side and a black side and we took down the fence and for us it was very very meaningful until we actually see that justice is done then i believe only then will we begin to heal here in jail john william king became the first white man in texas history to be sentenced to death for killing a black man i actually witnessed his execution he literally just went to sleep and you think of james for junior's death he committed the crime yet he just went to sleep and james bird jr just struggled to the very end russell brewer was sentenced and executed as well and sean allenberry is still serving life in prison good morning sean when i found out that my dad was brutally killed by three white supremacists i was in denial i was numb i was 16 years old so love and forgiveness was no part of my thought process at that moment [Music] i was fighting for a country that killed my old man you know what i'm saying it was hard for me to remain in the service after that [Music] james bird did what he wanted to do and you know he was that type of person i take after him a lot smart intelligent charismatic at the end of the day you can't turn into the hater you know i'm just being honest with you it's not a happy life in 2009 president barack obama signed a hate crimes law named after james byrd jr you will strengthen the protections against crimes based on the color of your skin the faith in your heart or the place of your birth 23 years later i still get angry but it's how you challenge your anger and i choose to channel it in a positive manner so this is a journey for me [Music] my dad did not get killed at the hands of a police officer but in today's world that is what we're seeing we're seeing a lot of brutality by the hands of officers the murder of george floyd it was a challenging point for me to put on my uniform just the disappointment that our country is still enduring racism and the magnitude that it is i want to be that officer if nothing else just be there in solidarity be there as hey you know i know what you're going through i mean the george floyd's do we got to be you know i mean jane birds do we got to be so we got to start back loving each other it don't make no sense

Channel: BBC News

Views: 99,780

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news, JamesByrdJr, Jasper, Texas, US

Id: HmetUwqtD8g

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021