TOWN STILL HAUNTED WITH RACIST MURDER OF 1998

[Mcminister]

jASPER, Texas -- Ten years after James Byrd Jr. was dragged to death down a three-mile stretch of country road simply because he was black, some things have changed in Jasper.

Black and white teenagers can be seen playing basketball together at James Byrd Jr. Memorial Park. Blacks now make up a majority on the City Council. And an iron fence no longer separates the graves of whites and blacks in the 171-year-old cemetery where Byrd is buried.

But Byrd's murder, which jolted the nation with its utter brutality and unvarnished racism, still casts a shadow over this timber town in deep East Texas. And many folks here think it always will.

"It is something we have to live with the rest of our lives," said Walter Diggles, a black civic leader and executive director of the Deep East Texas Council of Governments. "It is similar to Dallas, when people think of the JFK assassination, or Memphis, when people think of Martin Luther King's murder."

Ever since three white men beat the 49-year-old Byrd, chained him by the ankles to the bumper of a Ford pickup truck, then pulled him down Huff Creek Road in the early hours of June 7, 1998, Jasper has been almost synonymous with the horrors of racism.

Byrd's remains were found scattered in 75 places along the twisting path that cuts through a pine forest. His head and right arm were discovered about a mile from his mangled torso.

A decade later, according to Diggles, some people are still afraid to visit Jasper, a town of 8,000 where the main intersection is a cluster of fast-food places and restaurants offering chicken fried steak specials. Some businesses have been reluctant to come to town, which is badly in need of industry.

Foshage and other townspeople said that before the killing, blacks and whites sat separately at football games and in other public settings. But now, they say, they see less of that, with blacks and whites mingling more, and they attribute that to the Byrd family's efforts to fight bigotry.

Similarly, townspeople are attributing the black majority on the City Council to changed attitudes.

Betty Byrd Boatner, Byrd's younger sister, said that before the killing, she didn't see whites and blacks playing basketball together. As for the segregated graveyard, the iron fence came down a few years ago.

On Saturday, as they have every year on the anniversary of Byrd's death, the Byrds will hold a service -- not just as a memorial, but also as a challenge to those still shackled by prejudice.

"When you do things that hurt someone else, you need to remember that that person is someone's child," Boatner said. "My brother was someone's child. If it was your family, your brother, your sister, how would you handle it?"

There is still work to do. A few years back, Byrd's gravesite was vandalized and defaced with slurs.

"We're getting there," Boatner said, "but it just takes time."

[Mcminister]

yea it was ur great grandfather who was racist against my people right??? in 1998 rite?

[whiskeyjack]

yea it was ur great grandfather who was racist against my people right??? in 1998 rite?

that is a fucked up story i remember when it happened and it was on the news, some things are slow to change, if that talk about the black and white kids playing basketball is true then thats a start towards change... unless its some american history x style then yea things dont change

and to answer your question

where not all from texas

[Mcminister]

that shit was funny ...

they was like..its gon be our court if we win..lolol who the fuck declares a court...


but anywayz yea but shit like this happens in Lousiana, Texas, proly other places with no media attention u never kno son

[Vincetheprince]

whats funny?

[thebasher]

yea nothing funny bout this i wish 3 not 2 of them would
of got the death penalty...bastards