James Byrd Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was a black American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed
white supremacists
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
, in
Jasper, Texas
Jasper is a city in and the county seat of Jasper County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,884 at the 2020 U.S. Census, down from 7,590 at the 2010 U.S. Census. Jasper is situated in the Deep East Texas subregion, about west of the Te ...
, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King
dragged him for behind a
pickup truck along an asphalt road. Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a
culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another before dumping his
torso
The torso or trunk is an anatomical term for the central part, or the core, of the body of many animals (including humans), from which the head, neck, limbs, tail and other appendages extend. The tetrapod torso — including that of a huma ...
in front of a black church.
Brewer and King were the first white men to be
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for killing a black person in the history of modern Texas. In 2001, Byrd's
lynching-by-dragging led the state of Texas to pass a
hate crimes law, which later led the
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
to pass the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a landmark United States federal law, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Auth ...
, commonly known as the
Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...
Act, in 2009. Brewer was executed by
lethal injection for his part in the murder on September 21, 2011.
King was executed by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in
Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas. The population was 45,941 as of the 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is in the East Texas Piney Woods on Interstate 45 and home ...
, on April 24, 2019.
Berry was sentenced to
life imprisonment and will be eligible for
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
in 2038.
Background
James Byrd Jr. was born on May 2, 1949, in
Jasper County, Texas
Jasper County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 32,980. Its county seat is Jasper. The county was created as a municipality in Mexico in 1834, and in 1837 was organized as a county in the ...
, the third of nine children, to Stella Mae Sharp (1925–2010) and James Byrd Sr. (1925–2020). His mother was a Sunday School teacher and his father was a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
at the Greater New Bethel Church. Byrd graduated from Jasper Rowe High School in 1967, the last
segregated class. After graduating from high school, he married and had three children: Renee, Ross, and Jamie. He worked as a vacuum salesman.
James Byrd Jr. was a cousin of Dennetta Lyles King who was
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...
's first wife and mother to his daughter Lora King.
Ross Byrd, the only son of James Byrd Jr., has been involved with "Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation", an organization that opposes
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. He campaigned to spare the lives of those who murdered his father and appeared briefly in the documentary ''Deadline''.
Murder
On June 7, 1998, Byrd, age 49, accepted a ride from Shawn Berry (age 23), Lawrence Brewer (age 31), and John King (age 23). Berry, who was driving, was acquainted with Byrd from around town. Instead of taking Byrd home, the three men took Byrd to a remote county road out of town, beat him severely, spray-painted his face, urinated and defecated on him, and chained him by his ankles to their pickup truck before dragging him for about on Huff Creek Road (County Road 278). Brewer later claimed that Byrd's throat had been slashed by Berry before he was dragged. However, forensic evidence suggests that Byrd had been attempting to keep his head up while being dragged, and an
autopsy suggested that Byrd was alive during much of the dragging. Byrd died about halfway along the route of his dragging, when his right arm and head were severed as his body hit a
culvert.
While almost all of Byrd's ribs were fractured, his brain and skull were found intact, further suggesting that he maintained consciousness while he was being dragged.
Berry, Brewer, and King dumped the mutilated remains of Byrd's body in front of an African-American church on Huff Creek Road, then drove off to a barbecue.
A motorist found Byrd's decapitated remains the following morning. Along the area where Byrd was dragged, police found a wrench with "Berry" written on it. They also found a lighter that was inscribed with "Possum", which was King's prison nickname.
[, '']Texas Observer
''The Texas Observer'' (also known as the ''Observer'') is an American magazine with a liberal political outlook. The ''Observer'' is published bimonthly by a 501(c)(3)[white supremacists
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...]
, it was determined by state law enforcement officials that the murder was a hate crime. They called upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
less than 24 hours after the discovery of Byrd's remains. The special agent in charge of the FBI's Houston office said that they were assisting because of the case's "extreme circumstances".
King had several racist tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...
s: a black man hanging from a tree, Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
symbols, the words " Aryan Pride", and the patch for a gang of white supremacist inmates known as the Confederate Knights of America. In a jailhouse letter to Brewer that was intercepted by jail officials, King expressed pride in the crime and said that he realized while committing the murder that he might have to die. "Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. ''Sieg Heil
The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...
''!" King wrote. An officer investigating the case also testified that witnesses said that King had referenced ''The Turner Diaries
''The Turner Diaries'' is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. It depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war, and, ...
'' after beating Byrd.
Berry, Brewer, and King were tried and convicted for Byrd's murder. Brewer and King received the death penalty, while Berry was sentenced to life in prison
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
. Brewer was executed by lethal injection on September 21, 2011, and King was executed on April 24, 2019.
Perpetrators
Shawn Berry
During the trial of Shawn Allen Berry (born February 12, 1975), the prosecution conceded that he was not a white supremacist, but they argued that he was just as responsible for Byrd's murder as the other men and suggested that he might have been a thrill killer. Berry's attorneys had three Black men who knew him testify that he wasn't a racist. Berry claimed that Brewer and King were almost entirely responsible for the crime. He said he tried to stop them from attacking Byrd until Brewer threatened to do the same to him. Brewer, however, testified that Berry had cut Byrd's throat before he was tied to the truck. The jury decided that minimal evidence supported this claim. Berry was also the only one of the three to show any degree of remorse. As a result, Berry was spared execution and instead sentenced to life in prison. , Berry was living in protective custody at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Ramsey Unit
The W. F. Ramsey Unit (previously Ramsey I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison farm located in unincorporated Brazoria County, Texas, with a Rosharon postal address; it is not inside the Rosharon census-designated place. The ...
,[Keys, Perryn.]
Jasper: The Road Back: Did prison time turn man into one of Byrd's killers?
''Beaumont Enterprise''. June 9, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2010. and will be first eligible for parole when he is 63 years old in June 2038. He spends 23 hours per day in an cell, with one hour for exercise. Berry married Christie Marcontell by proxy.
Lawrence Brewer
Lawrence Russell Brewer (March 13, 1967 – September 21, 2011) was a white supremacist, who prior to Byrd's murder had served a prison sentence for drug possession and burglary. He was paroled in 1991. After violating his parole conditions in 1994, Brewer was returned to prison. According to his court testimony, he joined a white supremacist prison gang with King in order to safeguard himself from other inmates. Brewer and King became friends in the Beto Unit
The George Beto Unit (B) is a men's maximum security prison of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice located in unincorporated Anderson County, Texas, US. The unit is located along Farm to Market Road 3328, south of Tennessee Colony. The ...
prison. A psychiatrist testified that Brewer did not appear repentant for his crimes. During the trial, the prosecution labeled him a racist psychopath. Brewer was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death. Brewer, TDCJ#999327, was on death row at the Polunsky Unit, but he was executed in the Huntsville Unit
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...
on September 21, 2011. The day before his execution, Brewer expressed no remorse for his crime, as he told KHOU 11 News in Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
: "As far as any regrets, no, I have no regrets. No, I'd do it all over again, to tell you the truth."
Before his execution, Brewer ordered a last meal
A condemned prisoner's last meal is a customary ritual preceding execution. In many countries, the prisoner may, within reason, select what the last meal will be.
Contemporary restrictions in the United States
In the United States, most states gi ...
that prompted the end of last meal requests in Texas. The meal included two chicken fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños; a bowl of fried okra
Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread
White bread typically refers to breads made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ layers have been removed from the whole wheatberry as part of the flour grinding or milling process, producing a light-colored flour. This milling p ...
; three fully loaded fajita
A fajita (; ), in Tex-Mex cuisine, is any stripped grilled meat with stripped peppers and onions usually served on a flour or corn tortilla. The term originally referred to skirt steak, the cut of beef first used in the dish. Popular alternati ...
s; a meat-lover's pizza; one pint of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream; a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts on top; and three root beers. When the meal was presented, he told officials that he was not hungry and as a result he did not eat any of it. The meal was discarded, prompting State Senator John Whitmire
John Harris Whitmire (born August 13, 1949) is an American attorney and politician who is the longest-serving current member of the Texas State Senate. Since 1983, he has represented District 15, which includes much of northern Houston, Texas ...
to ask Texas prison officials to end the 87-year-old tradition of giving last meals to condemned inmates. The prison agency's executive director responded by stating that the practice had been terminated effective immediately.
John King
John William "Bill" King (November 3, 1974 – April 24, 2019) was Berry's longtime friend. He was accused of beating Byrd with a bat and then dragging him behind a pickup truck until he died. King, who prior to the murder had recently been released from a Texas prison, said that he had been repeatedly gang raped
Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...
in prison by black inmates. He was found guilty and sentenced to death for his role in Byrd's kidnapping and murder, and was on death row at the Polunsky Unit.
On December 21, 2018, King's execution by lethal injection
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, Neuromuscular-blocking drug, paralytic, and potassium chloride, potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main ...
was scheduled for April 24, 2019. On April 22, 2019, his appeals to both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges.
Article V of ...
and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) is a state agency that makes parole and clemency decisions for inmates in Texas prisons. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
The BPP was created by constitutional amendment in 1935. It determines wh ...
were denied. He was executed at the Huntsville Unit on April 24, 2019.
Reactions
Numerous aspects of the Byrd murder echo lynching traditions that were common in the post-Civil War south. These include mutilation
Mutilation or maiming (from the Latin: ''mutilus'') refers to Bodily harm, severe damage to the body that has a ruinous effect on an individual's quality of life. It can also refer to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunction ...
or decapitation and revelry, such as a barbecue or a picnic, either during or after a lynching. Byrd's murder was strongly condemned by Jesse Jackson and the Martin Luther King Center as an act of vicious racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
, and it also focused national attention on the prevalence of white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
prison gang
A prison gang is an inmate organization that operates within a prison system. It has a corporate entity and exists into perpetuity. Its membership is restrictive, mutually exclusive, and often requires a lifetime commitment. Prison officials and ot ...
s.
Three sisters of James Byrd are Jehovah's Witnesses, and in a joint statement said: "Having a loved one tortured and lynched produced an unimaginable sense of loss and pain. How does one respond to such a brutal act? Retaliation, hateful speech, or promotion of hate-ridden propaganda never entered our mind. We thought: 'What would Jesus have done? How would he have responded?' The answer was crystal clear. His message would have been one of peace and hope."
The victim's family created the James Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing after his death. Basketball star Dennis Rodman
Dennis Keith Rodman (born May 13, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities, his biography on the official NBA website states that he is "arguably the best reboundin ...
paid their funeral expenses and gave Byrd's family $25,000. Fight promoter Don King
Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. He has been a controversial figure, partly due to a manslaughter conviction and civil cases against him, as well a ...
gave Byrd's children $100,000 to be put towards their educational expenses.
On October 7, 1998, an episode of '' Law & Order'' titled "DWB" (driving while black) referenced the murder within the plot. Instead of three white supremacists, however, the killers were three white New York City police officers. As the plot goes, the officers stop and arrest a black man for no reason, and then proceed to drag him to his death, after tying him to the car.
In 1999, the documentary ''Journey to a Hate Free Millennium'' was created, showcasing three United States hate crimes, including the shootings at Columbine High School; the death of a gay student, Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...
; and the execution of James Byrd Jr. The documentary won over 100 film and educational awards and has been used in schools all over the world as a means to stop hate.
In 2003, a movie about the crime, titled ''Jasper, Texas
Jasper is a city in and the county seat of Jasper County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,884 at the 2020 U.S. Census, down from 7,590 at the 2010 U.S. Census. Jasper is situated in the Deep East Texas subregion, about west of the Te ...
'', was produced and aired on Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
. The same year, a documentary titled ''Two Towns of Jasper'', made by filmmakers Marco Williams and Whitney Dow, premiered on PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
's ''P.O.V.
''POV'' (also written ''P.O.V.'') is a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series which features independent nonfiction films. ''POV'' is an initialism for ''point of view''.
''POV'' is the longest-running showcase on television ...
'' series.
While employed as a radio DJ at station WARW in Washington, DC, Doug Tracht
Doug Tracht is an American radio, television, and movie personality. He is nicknamed "The Greaseman".
Personal
Tracht was born and grew up in the South Bronx with his younger sister, Diana, and parents, Alfred and Gertrude Tracht. His father was ...
(also known as the "Greaseman") made a derogatory comment referring to James Byrd after playing Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...
's song "Doo Wop (That Thing)
"Doo Wop (That Thing)" is a song recorded by American recording artist Lauryn Hill for her debut solo studio album ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' (1998). It was written and produced by Hill. The song was released as the lead single from ''Th ...
". The February 1999 incident proved catastrophic to Tracht's radio career, igniting protests from black and white listeners alike. He was quickly fired from WARW and lost his position as a volunteer deputy sheriff in Falls Church, Virginia.
In May 2004, two white teens, Joshua Lee Talley and John Matthew Fowler, were arrested and charged with criminal mischief for desecrating James Byrd Jr.'s grave with racial slurs and profanities.
Impact on US politics
Some advocacy groups, such as the NAACP National Voter Fund, made an issue of this case during George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
's presidential campaign in 2000. They accused Bush of implicit racism, since as governor of Texas, he opposed hate-crime
A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...
legislation. Also, citing a prior commitment, Bush did not appear at Byrd's funeral. Because two of the three murderers were sentenced to death and the third murderer was sentenced to life in prison (all three of them were charged with and convicted of capital murder, the highest felony level in Texas), Governor Bush maintained, "we don't need ''tougher'' laws". The 77th Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act. With the signature of Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Rick Perry, who inherited the balance of Bush's unexpired term, the act became Texas state law in 2001. In 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a landmark United States federal law, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Auth ...
expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes which are motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
, sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
, gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the ...
, or disability
Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...
.
Musical and poetry tributes
On the 2001 album '' Pieces of Me'' by singer-songwriter Lori McKenna
Lorraine McKenna ( Giroux; born December 22, 1968) is an American folk, Americana, and country music singer-songwriter. In 2016, she was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and won Best Country Song for co-writing the hit sing ...
, the song "Pink Sweater" is dedicated to Byrd; it condemns his murderers and references their death-penalty convictions with the raucous refrain, "I'll be the one in the pink sweater, dancing around when you're gone." In 2010, Alabama musician Matthew Mayfield
Matthew Mayfield is an American singer and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama. Originally the lead singer in the group Moses Mayfield, which disbanded in 2008, Mayfield has moved on to a solo career. He announced the release of his debut EP, ...
wrote, recorded, and released a song in Byrd's honor. The tune, titled "Still Alive", is the fourth track on Mayfield's EP ''You're Not Home''. "Still Alive" clearly related a stark bitterness towards racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
and equated such hate crimes with genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
. "Tell Me Why", featuring Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...
, mentions Byrd on Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his acting career starring as a fictionalized version of himself on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh ...
's fourth album, ''Lost and Found
A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...
''. Byrd's son Ross recorded the rap album ''Undeniable Resurrection'' and dedicated it to his father.
"Jasper", by Confrontation Camp
Confrontation Camp is an American rap rock group consisting of Kyle Jason and Public Enemy members Chuck D (under the name Mistachuck), Professor Griff and DJ Lord. The group's debut album, '' Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear'', wa ...
, is the fifth track on the album '' Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear'' (2000). "Guitar Drag" by sound artist Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality.
Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records ...
is a video- and sound-installation about the murder of James Byrd (2000). "I Heard 'Em Say" by Ryan Bingham is about Byrd's murder and the racially charged climate around Jasper following the crime (2012).
Byrd's murder is the subject of Maryland poet laureate Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton (June 27, 1936 – February 13, 2010) was an American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979 to 1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland. Clifton was a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
Li ...
's piece "jasper texas 1998" as well as Jeffrey Thomson's piece "Achilles in Jasper, Texas".
The tale of Byrd's murder, and that of Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...
, are told in a verse of the song "Trouble the Waters" by Big Country
Big Country are a Scottish rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981.
The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s, although it has retained a cult following for many years since. The band's music incorporated Scott ...
on their album ''Driving to Damascus
''Driving to Damascus'' is the eighth studio album by Scottish rock band Big Country. It was released in 1999 as both a standard edition and a limited edition digipack, and with bonus tracks in 2002. In the U.S., it was released under a differ ...
'' (named ''John Wayne's Dream
''Driving to Damascus'' is the eighth studio album by Scottish rock band Big Country. It was released in 1999 as both a standard edition and a limited edition digipack, and with bonus tracks in 2002. In the U.S., it was released under a differ ...
'' in its US release).
Byrd's murder is depicted in Nia DaCosta
Nia DaCosta (born November 8, 1989) is an American film director and screenwriter. She wrote and directed the crime thriller film ''Little Woods'' (2018), winning the Nora Ephron Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. She also directed the horror ...
's 2021 film '' Candyman'', featuring him resurrected as one of the souls trapped in the Candyman "hive": in his Candyman form, with his skull exposed, Byrd uses the hook and cables involved in his murder to kill his murderers, ascending into legend. Depicted in the film's mid-credits scene
A post-credits scene (commonly referred to as a stinger or credit cookie) or mid-credits scene is a short clip that appears after all or some of the closing credits have rolled and sometimes after a production logo of a film, TV series, or video g ...
in the form of shadow puppetry
Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-o ...
, Byrd's murder was previously featured in DaCosta's 2020 promotional short film of the same name.
See also
References
Further reading
*
* Ainslie, Ricardo. ''Long Dark Road: Bill King and Murder in Jasper, Texas''. University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
Press, 2004.
* King, Joyce. ''Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas''. Pantheon, 2002.
* Temple-Raston, Dina. ''A Death in Texas: A Story of Race, Murder, and Small Town's Struggle for Redemption''. Henry Holt and Co., January 6, 2002.
External links
Remember His Name – From Hate To Healing: The Long Road Home
documentary in production by Lizard Productions
*
* – television movie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrd Jr., James
1998 in Texas
1998 murders in the United States
African-American history of Texas
Capital murder cases
Deaths by person in Texas
June 1998 crimes
June 1998 events in the United States
Lynching deaths in Texas
Murders by motor vehicle
Racially motivated violence against African Americans
People or corpses dragged behind a vehicle