"No comment" to me was a stupid moment akin to Obama's coffee cut salute, as opposed to an outrageous moment akin to "I did not have relations with that woman." I wish we could move on but that's not who we are anymore.
These are the same disingenuous people who are trying to make him greeting a rescue dog yesterday a thing.
which reporter was it? what network, paper or whatever?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"No comment" to me was a stupid moment akin to Obama's coffee cut salute, as opposed to an outrageous moment akin to "I did not have relations with that woman." I wish we could move on but that's not who we are anymore.
These are the same disingenuous people who are trying to make him greeting a rescue dog yesterday a thing.
I found this excerpt from last night's Letter to an American particularly interesting, and relevant.
"Whether or not you agree with the level of response the Biden administration has provided to those suffering in the fires, the pattern of using the media to establish a narrative that the administration is ignoring Americans when it clearly is not is almost exactly what happened with the East Palestine, Ohio, railway disaster in February 2023. Then, pro-Russian accounts promptly began to argue that the Biden administration was ignoring a disaster at home—when emergency personnel were on the ground immediately—in order to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion.
Now, behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, a specialist in disinformation, noted that the X (Twitter) account that seeded the “Hawaii, not Ukraine” narrative was created just last month and that accounts associated with both Russia and China are amplifying the narrative that Biden has neglected Maui. It seems telling that the same right-wing “independent journalist” who went to East Palestine has flown into Maui to attack Biden’s response, showing up on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”
Steve O, Mikey Flynn Baby, Rodger Dodger Stined and Elongitaint are effectively Russian, Russian, Russian agents for Putin on the ritz. Follow the money.
I'm assuming one of our maga friends will come here and try to tell us Joe fell asleep at a ceremony in Maui and forcefully demand we denounce it or else we are all pieces of shit. Story is spreading in the right wing echsphere. Truth is, the guy nodded his head for a few seconds.
I'm assuming one of our maga friends will come here and try to tell us Joe fell asleep at a ceremony in Maui and forcefully demand we denounce it or else we are all pieces of shit. Story is spreading in the right wing echsphere. Truth is, the guy nodded his head for a few seconds.
He was saying a prayer. Watch it….he nods to himself, his lips move, and he nods at the end of the prayer. I dislike Joe but Christ give the guy a break.
I'm assuming one of our maga friends will come here and try to tell us Joe fell asleep at a ceremony in Maui and forcefully demand we denounce it or else we are all pieces of shit. Story is spreading in the right wing echsphere. Truth is, the guy nodded his head for a few seconds.
I'm assuming one of our maga friends will come here and try to tell us Joe fell asleep at a ceremony in Maui and forcefully demand we denounce it or else we are all pieces of shit. Story is spreading in the right wing echsphere. Truth is, the guy nodded his head for a few seconds.
"The story is spreading in the right wing echosphere"
I haven't heard of this so it must be a right wing echosphere that only gets mentioned on a Pearl Jam forum.
I did see that when Joe went to speak in Maui, that he said he could relate to the fire because he knows what it's like to lose a home due to fire which is another total bullshit lie.
"I don't want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it's like to lose a home." - Joe "Lyin" Biden
That's how out of touch Joe is. He believes that a small kitchen fire is similar to the most deadly US fire in the last 100 years. Of course he's going to nod off because he's old. I don't even care to look into that.
It is pretty pathetic that Joe doesn't get called out when he straight up lies trying to compare what he's gone through to something that is much bigger than his stupid little kitchen fire.
Honestly, the guy just needs to pray harder. Or at least sing along with prayer. Since he did not do that, he is NO DIFFERENT than the traitors on our women's national soccer team! maga!!!
He was saying a prayer. Watch it….he nods to himself, his lips move, and he nods at the end of the prayer. I dislike Joe but Christ give the guy a break.
can't give him a break. maga hatred has no breaks.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
"No comment" to me was a stupid moment akin to Obama's coffee cut salute, as opposed to an outrageous moment akin to "I did not have relations with that woman." I wish we could move on but that's not who we are anymore.
These are the same disingenuous people who are trying to make him greeting a rescue dog yesterday a thing.
I found this excerpt from last night's Letter to an American particularly interesting, and relevant.
"Whether or not you agree with the level of response the Biden administration has provided to those suffering in the fires, the pattern of using the media to establish a narrative that the administration is ignoring Americans when it clearly is not is almost exactly what happened with the East Palestine, Ohio, railway disaster in February 2023. Then, pro-Russian accounts promptly began to argue that the Biden administration was ignoring a disaster at home—when emergency personnel were on the ground immediately—in order to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion.
Now, behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, a specialist in disinformation, noted that the X (Twitter) account that seeded the “Hawaii, not Ukraine” narrative was created just last month and that accounts associated with both Russia and China are amplifying the narrative that Biden has neglected Maui. It seems telling that the same right-wing “independent journalist” who went to East Palestine has flown into Maui to attack Biden’s response, showing up on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”
I'm assuming one of our maga friends will come here and try to tell us Joe fell asleep at a ceremony in Maui and forcefully demand we denounce it or else we are all pieces of shit. Story is spreading in the right wing echsphere. Truth is, the guy nodded his head for a few seconds.
"The story is spreading in the right wing echosphere"
I haven't heard of this so it must be a right wing echosphere that only gets mentioned on a Pearl Jam forum.
I did see that when Joe went to speak in Maui, that he said he could relate to the fire because he knows what it's like to lose a home due to fire which is another total bullshit lie.
"I don't want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it's like to lose a home." - Joe "Lyin" Biden
That's how out of touch Joe is. He believes that a small kitchen fire is similar to the most deadly US fire in the last 100 years. Of course he's going to nod off because he's old. I don't even care to look into that.
It is pretty pathetic that Joe doesn't get called out when he straight up lies trying to compare what he's gone through to something that is much bigger than his stupid little kitchen fire.
I’m in another forum with mostly republicans, and through them I quickly heard about the dog boots, the house fire, and the nap.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
Have you noticed the racial make up of the current repub members of congress and their staffs and who is most negatively impacted by their imagined policies? Have you not been paying attention to what’s happened to the teaching of history in repub states? Are you onboard with “slavery was a job training program?”
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
Have you noticed the racial make up of the current repub members of congress and their staffs and who is most negatively impacted by their imagined policies? Have you not been paying attention to what’s happened to the teaching of history in repub states? Are you onboard with “slavery was a job training program?”
Unable to have a conversation is right.
‘If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black’- Joe Biden- Most voted for President in US History
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
25 years ago. And we still haven't seemed to make much progress. Best to just forget this shit, eh? WARNING: Graphic description of Mr. Byrd's death, for those not aware. Or should I say "woke?"
A Black man’s brutal murder has faded from a Texas town’s memory
JASPER, Tex. — On a June evening in 1998, three White men chained a Black man by his ankles to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him for several miles down a twisting country road in this small East Texas town, decapitating him in the process. The next day, pieces of James Byrd’s body were found all along the route.
What happened next — a deluge of national media attention and the passage of federal and state hate-crimes legislation named after Byrd — cemented Jasper’s place in America’s long history of racial terror against Black people. Under pressure to prove their town was no bastion of hate, White residents invited Black neighbors over for meals for months and pledged to close the town’s gaping racial divide. The city’s mayor at the time, R.C. Horn, the first Black person to hold the position, convened nearly two dozen town hall meetings and workshops to discuss racism and how to address it.
But now, 25 years later, the horrific attack that once galvanized this community is barely discussed. Byrd is not mentioned in the local school district’s Texas history textbooks and he’s absent from the Jasper County Historical Museum, which opened in 2008. His family says their efforts to keep Byrd’s memory alive, including a push to open a museum in his honor, have largely been met with lackluster support from local officials. Few people showed up at a Juneteenth event they held this year to acknowledge the anniversary of Byrd’s murder.
“They just want to forget what happened in Jasper,” said LouVon Byrd Harris, Byrd’s younger sister. “You know who people really are once the cameras are gone. And once the cameras were gone, people started saying, ‘Poor Jasper, we’re victims, too.’”
The men involved in Byrd’s death have been punished, but Jasper continues to be unfairly tainted by their actions, said David Shultz, one of the two White members of Jasper’s five-person City Council. “I don’t think what happened was the people in Jasper’s fault,” he said. “I think people have a tendency to judge Jasper on what happened in the past, not the city that Jasper is today.”
The town’s collective amnesia reflects the worst fears of racial justice advocates about what may follow George Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer. Byrd’s death, like Floyd’s, was supposed to represent a turning point in American history, but it has been relegated to a footnote even in his hometown, they say.
As memories of the months of protest and the pledges of reform after Floyd’s death start to fade, there are already signs that his legacy is ebbing, too. Support for the Black Lives Matter movement reached 67 percent in June 2020, a month after the killing, at the height of the movement. It has fallen to 51 percent today, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
“It’s sad to say, but I don’t think we’re going to being looking back in 15 or 20 years and saying that what happened to George Floyd fundamentally changed our country,” said Rashad Lewis, an activist who organized rallies in Jasper after Floyd’s murder and was elected to the City Council in 2017. “I think it’s going to be another one of those big, iconic moments like James Byrd, like Rodney King, that just kind of fade into the background of our history.”
The fight to preserve Byrd’s memory comes as the story of America’s racial history, from slavery to Reconstruction, is the subject of a fierce political battle. A Florida State Board of Education decision to require students to learn that enslaved people gained beneficial skills has set off a national debate about what parts of the country’s racial history are taught and how. In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed an anti-critical-race-theory law restricting how public school teachers discuss race and racism in American society. Earlier this year, they followed up with a similar bill targeting colleges.
Byrd’s death has unfairly cast a shadow over the city, according to White residents and local leaders, who say it’s time for the racist stain caused by the actions of three men decades ago to be relegated to the past.
“I really hate how what happened here portrayed the rest of the town,” said Sandra Bryan, a 69-year-old White woman who is a lifelong Jasper resident. “What happened was really bad, but I truly do believe that the good here outweighs the bad and that’s the story that needs to be told.”
Even Jasper’s new mayor, Anderson Land, who is Black, says it’s time to redefine the city. “It’s the family’s job to keep James’s memory alive and I’m here to support them in that,” said Land, who knew Byrd growing up. “But in order for Jasper to grow, we must move on.”
But for many Black residents, the pain of Byrd’s death lingers. Jasper’s racial inequalities have yet to be resolved, they say. And Byrd’s relatives say his death has never been properly addressed.
Instead, they say, in a county dependent on tourism at the nearby Sam Rayburn Reservoir, leaders have been focused on cleaning up Jasper’s image without addressing the underlying racial divide. In interviews, several Black residents said their community is facing many of the same issues — including a median household income that stands at about two-thirds that of White households — as it did when Byrd was murdered.
“Nothing much has changed here,” said Betty Lane, a 68-year-old Black retired nursing aide. “They don’t teach nothing about Black history in schools, they keep us out of the good jobs, and the Whites don’t want their daughters with Black boys.”
Byrd’s murder grabs national attention
On June 7, 1998, three White men with ties to the Ku Klux Klan asked Byrd if he wanted a ride as he was walking home from a friend’s party, according to court records. About 2 a.m., Byrd jumped into the bed of the Ford pickup truck.
Byrd, 49, had grown up in Jasper and was known as friendly and outgoing with a big personality, according to family and friends. Unable to afford a car, he would often be seen walking around town or hitching rides.
On this night, according to police reports at the time, Shawn Allen Berry, then 23, picked Byrd up and drove onto an old logging road, a relic of Jasper’s lumber industry heyday. There, Berry stopped and, authorities say, the three White men set on Byrd, punching and kicking him and attacking him with beer bottles.
Next, they chained Byrd, who police say was still alive, to the back of Berry’s truck and drove down Huff Creek Road, swerving across the dark country road to make Byrd’s body swing wildly from left to right. The asphalt wore Byrd’s elbows, buttocks and left cheek down to bone, but according to authorities, he died only when he was decapitated as his body swung onto a concrete drainage culvert. The three White men left what remained of Byrd’s body in front of an African American church. The next day, police found a three-mile trail of flesh, bones and blood.
The response was swift. The East Texas town of 8,000 people was suddenly another cautionary tale of racial hate curdled into violence. “Jasper gripped by shame,” read one newspaper headline. “History will judge each of us by how we respond to what happened outside a small town in eastern Texas,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the veteran civil rights leader, wrote in an op-ed.
As news of the Byrd’s death spread, members of the KKK came to town to disavow connection to the killing with speeches laced with racist vitriol. They were met by armed Black protesters. Three weeks after Byrd’s murder, 200 law enforcement officers tussled with both sides to keep the peace, a spectacle broadcast around the globe.
Byrd’s funeral also drew national attention. About 200 mourners gathered in the church, with hundreds of others gathered outdoors. Activists like the Rev. Al Sharpton came to town. “Brother Byrd’s innocent blood alone could very well be the blood that changes the course of our country,” civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said at the funeral. “Because no one has captured the nation’s attention like this tragedy.''
Byrd was laid to rest in the Black section of the city’s segregated cemetery, where Black and White bodies were separated by a wrought-iron fence.
Politicians in Washington and in state capitals across the country began calling for tougher hate-crime laws. Within weeks, Byrd’s oldest daughter, Renee Byrd Mullins, 27 at the time, was at the U.S. Capitol. “The men who murdered my father had a choice that morning, and they chose violence,” Mullins told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Therefore, the laws of the land should punish them.”
The three White men charged with Byrd’s murder were convicted before the laws were in place. But in their trials, prosecutors still highlighted their racist attitudes, including a note one of the defendants, John William King, 23 at the time, sent to another. “Seriously though bro, reguardless [sic] of the outcome of this, we have made history and shall die proudly remembered if need be … Gotta go. Much Aryan Love. Respect and Honor my brother in arms,” wrote King, a laborer.
In aftermath, hope
In the aftermath of Byrd’s death, his family started the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing, with high hopes of putting a spotlight on the racist attitudes that led to his death. In 1999, Jasper built a public park around the corner from Byrd’s childhood home and named it in his honor. The family planned to open a museum in town that would focus on hate crimes and race reconciliation.
“It seemed like we could take what happened to James and really change things,” said Byrd Harris, the youngest of Byrd’s eight siblings. She dreamed of using the foundation to create a nationwide hotline for people who felt that hate crimes they had experienced weren’t taken seriously by local officials.
But almost immediately their efforts ran into trouble. After receiving $100,000 from former boxing promoter Don King, the foundation garnered no other major gifts. The family has used small donations collected over the years to award two annual college scholarships of $1,000 to local high school graduates.
“At the time, we all worked,” said Byrd Harris. “We couldn’t quit our full-time job to support the foundation because we didn’t have the funds to do that and to travel the world and tell James’s story.”
Stella Byrd, Bryd’s mother, ran a small museum out of the family home until it burned down several years ago. The museum, no bigger than a closet, contained photos of Byrd and some of the letters and artwork the family had received from ordinary people and dignitaries around the world after Byrd’s death.
At the Jasper County Historical Museum, visitors are greeted by a timeline on the north wall highlighting key moments in the area: In 1968, schools officially integrated; in 1991, Garth Brooks headlined at the Jasper Lions Club Rodeo.
The city’s establishment as a hub for cotton and timber production is featured, but that it was powered by a large population of enslaved people, nearly 40 percent of the county’s population in 1860, is not mentioned.
Neither is Byrd’s murder.
“We are working on how to address it as a museum,” said Tod Lawlis, the museum’s part-time director. He recently heard of an exhibit about Byrd in Austin, 250 miles away, but hasn’t seen it and isn’t sure whether he will bring it to Jasper. “We’re trying to make arrangements to see it, and if it’s fair, we want to try to get it here,” said Lawlis, who is White. “It is part of the county’s history. We want to tell it in an unbiased, fair way.”
Before running the museum, Lawlis had a long career as a teacher, including in Jasper. Byrd didn’t come up in any of his classes either, he said, noting that it would have been covered in seventh-grade Texas history. He taught sixth and eighth grade.
But he said he had many difficult conversations about other sensitive racial issues, including slavery, in his classroom. Once a student asked if the teacher would have owned slaves in the past. Lawlis acknowledged to his students that given the morals of that time, he wasn’t sure, he said.
The state’s most-used Texas history textbook, “Texas History,”published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also doesn’t mention Byrd. Such textbooks must conform to standards passed by the State Board of Education, which has been at the center of the political battle over how the nation’s history is taught.
The board’s president and the book’s publisher did not return calls seeking comment. The Jasper Independent School District’s superintendent and director of curriculum and instruction also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Byrd’s exclusion from textbooks in Texas is not surprising, said Staci Childs, a Democrat who represents parts of Houston and its suburbs on the State Board of Education. Childs says she was inspired to run for a seat on the board last year after recent efforts to limit what schools teach.
“It’s hard navigating this in Texas,” said Childs, who is serving a two-year term on the board.
“I wouldn’t tell a 4-year-old, ‘Hey, there’s this guy named James Byrd. Let me show you what happened to him,’” said Childs, who is Black. “But I would put it in a curriculum — especially in Texas with the issues that we’re grappling with — at an age-appropriate level.”
KiLeigh Isom, a White 19-year-old Jasper native, said she learned of Byrd’s death only recently from a friend and then asked her parents about it. “We sat down and had a big conversation about it,” she said.
“It should be talked about, but it’s too controversial for people,” said Isom, who just finished her freshman year at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex. “A lot of parents and teachers try to hide it from kids.”
The federal and state hate-crimes laws named after Byrd also haven’t had the impact supporters say they had hoped for. Few cases have been pursued under either statute, and some supporters of the laws blame that on political considerations.
The laws are similar to unfunded mandates, passed without giving local prosecutors and police the resources to prove that suspects acted with hateful intent, said Jeannine Bell, a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
“They passed the law and everyone thought the fight was over,” said Bell, who has written a book about how police handle hate crimes. “We need prosecutors offices that are serious enough about hate crime that they have special units where people develop the expertise you need to prosecute these laws, where they know what to ask people who have been targeted by hate crimes and what to tell the cops to do to get the evidence they need to convict.”
Jasper wants to reclaim its name
Town leaders say they worry that Jasper, known for its historic courthouse square, will forever be tainted by the misdeeds of a few people.
Despite its reputation, Jasper is a diverse community, they say. Black residents make up 45 percent of the city’s population, while White and Latino residents account for 38 percent and 13 percent, respectively, according to the most recent census figures. The city’s political leadership largely reflects that diversity, they add. The five-member city council has three Black members and two White members.
The city has had two Black mayors, during the time of Byrd’s death and now.
Few other East Texas towns have had that level of Black leadership, locals say.
“Jasper wasn’t perfect,” said Lawlis, the White museum director. “But we got along and this town was a lot more integrated than a lot of the communities around us. But you didn’t see that in the media coverage, and so we’ve been trying to get that side of the story out ever since.”
Town leaders have also heralded the quick convictions of Byrd’s three killers as proof that the town was not a safe haven for racists. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011, John William King was executed in 2019, and Berry is serving a life sentence and is up for parole in 2038.
“We showed the world that Jasper didn’t support what these men did,” said Lawlis, whose father was the judge in Brewer’s trial.
Amid the city’s struggles, there has been progress — but even that has been shadowed by its reputation.
In 2019, the city celebrated winning a competition to bring the IT company Provalus to town. But in a study published after the bidding process, the Jasper Economic Development Corporation found among the downsides cited by the executives considering the move: “Jasper’s history regarding the infamous dragging death of James Byrd possibly hurting chances with [the company’s] customers.” Provalus declined to comment.
In 2022, Jasper celebrated another victory when a Houston couple, Ed and Sujey Guizar, purchased the city’s historic, 113-year-old Belle Jim Hotel. “The murder was definitely on my mind as we were looking at buying this place,” said Ed Guizar, who is Hispanic. “Our Realtor back in Houston told us this wasn’t a safe place for people of color.”
Despite those concerns, said Guizar, Jasper offered a better opportunity for his family. “A property like this would have cost millions in Houston and we really wanted to own our own thing,” he said.
When they first opened their doors, nearly all of their customers were White, and Guizar says he learned that the Belle Jim Hotel had a reputation in the Black community as an unwelcoming place reserved just for the town’s rich White clients. “For 110 years this was a White-owned hotel — we broke that cycle,” he said. “This is actually a very diverse community, and I think us being the face of a business like this is showing that Jasper is not what people think it is.”
On Juneteenth weekend, the Byrd family gathered at the park that bears his name on the city’s eastern edge. Family members wore white T-shirts with “We won’t forget” written in purple.
Hoping to start a new tradition, they had invited the public to attend in a Facebook post, but the majority of the about two dozen attendees were family members. The city’s mayor read a proclamation passed by the City Council designating June 7 as James Byrd Jr. Day in Jasper.
Byrd’s three children led the event as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren ran around the park. The siblings talked about how they would like their father to be honored: a national holiday, renaming the road where he was killed in his honor, stronger hate-crime laws.
Byrd Harris, Byrd’s sister, says she has her own dreams.
In the aftermath of his death, Jasper residents came together in 1999 to take down the fence that had separated White and Black residents at the local cemetery for more than 100 years. “Give us the power and strength through this rotten and broken fence to repair the fences in our own lives,” the Rev. Ron Foshage, the White pastor of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, said at the ceremony.
But since then, Byrd’s grave has been repeatedly vandalized, including when two White teenagers wrote racial slurs and knocked over the tombstone. The family has had to raise money to replace the tombstone twice.
A new fence has been erected — this time just around Byrd’s grave.
“His gravesite is surrounded by a fence because we still haven’t dealt with hate in this country,” said Byrd Harris. “It’s like he’s still not free, it’s like hate still has a hold on him.”
Byrd Harris, 65, says she hopes that before she dies the fence will no longer be needed.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
Linda said that I hate all of those people by saying "y'all". I didn't pass any laws.
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
Linda said that I hate all of those people by saying "y'all". I didn't pass any laws.
you voted for the people that did.
does that make sense?
you support the people passing those laws.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
Linda said that I hate all of those people by saying "y'all". I didn't pass any laws.
you voted for the people that did.
does that make sense?
you support the people passing those laws.
If the Democratic party was perfect, why are there so many Republicans? There are Jewish, Muslim, Women, Gay and Trans people that vote Republican. Are they just trying to marginalize themselves?
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
Linda said that I hate all of those people by saying "y'all". I didn't pass any laws.
you voted for the people that did.
does that make sense?
you support the people passing those laws.
If the Democratic party was perfect, why are there so many Republicans? There are Jewish, Muslim, Women, Gay and Trans people that vote Republican. Are they just trying to marginalize themselves?
they are minorities in your party. they think the way you do. you would have to ask them that question.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Joe Biden is a piece of shit and so are the people that voted for him.
so that includes these 138 poll participants board members then? not so sure that complies with posting guidelines. I feel personally attacked.
How many times have Trump voters been called evil on this message board? How many times have all Republicans been called derogatory names?
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
I’m not up in arms. There’s a difference between the two sides that you seem to fail to recognize. One side seems to hate anything woke, or not white, Christian nationalist (great people on both sides) and the other side has a very strong dislike of the haters. One side seems totally ok with an attempted overthrow of a national election. The other side believes that everyone’s vote should count and that more people should vote by more methods. One side wants to be about personal grievances and differences while the other side wants the debate to be about policy proposals and a true accounting of our history and the many contributors to it.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
"One side seems to hate anything not white?"
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
You’re right that’s bull crap, y’all hate Jews, and Muslims, and women, and gays, trans,……oh the list goes on and on…doesn’t it?
None of this is true.
then why is your party the party that is constantly passing laws that deliberately harm those marginalized people?
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
Linda said that I hate all of those people by saying "y'all". I didn't pass any laws.
you voted for the people that did.
does that make sense?
you support the people passing those laws.
If the Democratic party was perfect, why are there so many Republicans? There are Jewish, Muslim, Women, Gay and Trans people that vote Republican. Are they just trying to marginalize themselves?
they are minorities in your party. they think the way you do. you would have to ask them that question.
yeah but i am a rotten brain piece of shit because i voted for the guy that wants ALL people to have equal protection under the law....
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Comments
which reporter was it? what network, paper or whatever?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I found this excerpt from last night's Letter to an American particularly interesting, and relevant.
"Whether or not you agree with the level of response the Biden administration has provided to those suffering in the fires, the pattern of using the media to establish a narrative that the administration is ignoring Americans when it clearly is not is almost exactly what happened with the East Palestine, Ohio, railway disaster in February 2023. Then, pro-Russian accounts promptly began to argue that the Biden administration was ignoring a disaster at home—when emergency personnel were on the ground immediately—in order to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion.
Now, behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, a specialist in disinformation, noted that the X (Twitter) account that seeded the “Hawaii, not Ukraine” narrative was created just last month and that accounts associated with both Russia and China are amplifying the narrative that Biden has neglected Maui. It seems telling that the same right-wing “independent journalist” who went to East Palestine has flown into Maui to attack Biden’s response, showing up on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.mediaite.com/biden/did-joe-biden-fall-asleep-during-maui-wild-fire-memorial-service-take-the-latest-political-rorschach-test/
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I haven't heard of this so it must be a right wing echosphere that only gets mentioned on a Pearl Jam forum.
I did see that when Joe went to speak in Maui, that he said he could relate to the fire because he knows what it's like to lose a home due to fire which is another total bullshit lie.
"I don't want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it's like to lose a home." - Joe "Lyin" Biden
That's how out of touch Joe is. He believes that a small kitchen fire is similar to the most deadly US fire in the last 100 years. Of course he's going to nod off because he's old. I don't even care to look into that.
It is pretty pathetic that Joe doesn't get called out when he straight up lies trying to compare what he's gone through to something that is much bigger than his stupid little kitchen fire.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Please explain the difference and leave your political bias out of the explanation. If I can't blanket call a group of people names, why can others? None of you call it out when it happens against Republicans but when I say something about people that voted for Biden, everyone is up in arms.
This post is for everyone to answer, not just mickeyrat.
Which side are you on? I think I know but I do believe you stated that you’ll vote for POOTWH again which gives me a clue.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
That's bullshit. There's no point in trying to have a reasonable conversation if you are going to throw out bullshit remarks like that one.
Unable to have a conversation is right.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
‘If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black’- Joe Biden- Most voted for President in US History
is it because you all hate them, or because you all are thugs that want to punish the marginalized?
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
A Black man’s brutal murder has faded from a Texas town’s memory
JASPER, Tex. — On a June evening in 1998, three White men chained a Black man by his ankles to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him for several miles down a twisting country road in this small East Texas town, decapitating him in the process. The next day, pieces of James Byrd’s body were found all along the route.
What happened next — a deluge of national media attention and the passage of federal and state hate-crimes legislation named after Byrd — cemented Jasper’s place in America’s long history of racial terror against Black people. Under pressure to prove their town was no bastion of hate, White residents invited Black neighbors over for meals for months and pledged to close the town’s gaping racial divide. The city’s mayor at the time, R.C. Horn, the first Black person to hold the position, convened nearly two dozen town hall meetings and workshops to discuss racism and how to address it.
But now, 25 years later, the horrific attack that once galvanized this community is barely discussed. Byrd is not mentioned in the local school district’s Texas history textbooks and he’s absent from the Jasper County Historical Museum, which opened in 2008. His family says their efforts to keep Byrd’s memory alive, including a push to open a museum in his honor, have largely been met with lackluster support from local officials. Few people showed up at a Juneteenth event they held this year to acknowledge the anniversary of Byrd’s murder.
“They just want to forget what happened in Jasper,” said LouVon Byrd Harris, Byrd’s younger sister. “You know who people really are once the cameras are gone. And once the cameras were gone, people started saying, ‘Poor Jasper, we’re victims, too.’”
The men involved in Byrd’s death have been punished, but Jasper continues to be unfairly tainted by their actions, said David Shultz, one of the two White members of Jasper’s five-person City Council. “I don’t think what happened was the people in Jasper’s fault,” he said. “I think people have a tendency to judge Jasper on what happened in the past, not the city that Jasper is today.”
The town’s collective amnesia reflects the worst fears of racial justice advocates about what may follow George Floyd’s 2020 murder by a Minneapolis police officer. Byrd’s death, like Floyd’s, was supposed to represent a turning point in American history, but it has been relegated to a footnote even in his hometown, they say.
As memories of the months of protest and the pledges of reform after Floyd’s death start to fade, there are already signs that his legacy is ebbing, too. Support for the Black Lives Matter movement reached 67 percent in June 2020, a month after the killing, at the height of the movement. It has fallen to 51 percent today, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
“It’s sad to say, but I don’t think we’re going to being looking back in 15 or 20 years and saying that what happened to George Floyd fundamentally changed our country,” said Rashad Lewis, an activist who organized rallies in Jasper after Floyd’s murder and was elected to the City Council in 2017. “I think it’s going to be another one of those big, iconic moments like James Byrd, like Rodney King, that just kind of fade into the background of our history.”
The fight to preserve Byrd’s memory comes as the story of America’s racial history, from slavery to Reconstruction, is the subject of a fierce political battle. A Florida State Board of Education decision to require students to learn that enslaved people gained beneficial skills has set off a national debate about what parts of the country’s racial history are taught and how. In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed an anti-critical-race-theory law restricting how public school teachers discuss race and racism in American society. Earlier this year, they followed up with a similar bill targeting colleges.
Byrd’s death has unfairly cast a shadow over the city, according to White residents and local leaders, who say it’s time for the racist stain caused by the actions of three men decades ago to be relegated to the past.
“I really hate how what happened here portrayed the rest of the town,” said Sandra Bryan, a 69-year-old White woman who is a lifelong Jasper resident. “What happened was really bad, but I truly do believe that the good here outweighs the bad and that’s the story that needs to be told.”
Even Jasper’s new mayor, Anderson Land, who is Black, says it’s time to redefine the city. “It’s the family’s job to keep James’s memory alive and I’m here to support them in that,” said Land, who knew Byrd growing up. “But in order for Jasper to grow, we must move on.”
But for many Black residents, the pain of Byrd’s death lingers. Jasper’s racial inequalities have yet to be resolved, they say. And Byrd’s relatives say his death has never been properly addressed.
Instead, they say, in a county dependent on tourism at the nearby Sam Rayburn Reservoir, leaders have been focused on cleaning up Jasper’s image without addressing the underlying racial divide. In interviews, several Black residents said their community is facing many of the same issues — including a median household income that stands at about two-thirds that of White households — as it did when Byrd was murdered.
“Nothing much has changed here,” said Betty Lane, a 68-year-old Black retired nursing aide. “They don’t teach nothing about Black history in schools, they keep us out of the good jobs, and the Whites don’t want their daughters with Black boys.”
Byrd’s murder grabs national attention
On June 7, 1998, three White men with ties to the Ku Klux Klan asked Byrd if he wanted a ride as he was walking home from a friend’s party, according to court records. About 2 a.m., Byrd jumped into the bed of the Ford pickup truck.
Byrd, 49, had grown up in Jasper and was known as friendly and outgoing with a big personality, according to family and friends. Unable to afford a car, he would often be seen walking around town or hitching rides.
On this night, according to police reports at the time, Shawn Allen Berry, then 23, picked Byrd up and drove onto an old logging road, a relic of Jasper’s lumber industry heyday. There, Berry stopped and, authorities say, the three White men set on Byrd, punching and kicking him and attacking him with beer bottles.
Next, they chained Byrd, who police say was still alive, to the back of Berry’s truck and drove down Huff Creek Road, swerving across the dark country road to make Byrd’s body swing wildly from left to right. The asphalt wore Byrd’s elbows, buttocks and left cheek down to bone, but according to authorities, he died only when he was decapitated as his body swung onto a concrete drainage culvert. The three White men left what remained of Byrd’s body in front of an African American church. The next day, police found a three-mile trail of flesh, bones and blood.
The response was swift. The East Texas town of 8,000 people was suddenly another cautionary tale of racial hate curdled into violence. “Jasper gripped by shame,” read one newspaper headline. “History will judge each of us by how we respond to what happened outside a small town in eastern Texas,” Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the veteran civil rights leader, wrote in an op-ed.
As news of the Byrd’s death spread, members of the KKK came to town to disavow connection to the killing with speeches laced with racist vitriol. They were met by armed Black protesters. Three weeks after Byrd’s murder, 200 law enforcement officers tussled with both sides to keep the peace, a spectacle broadcast around the globe.
Byrd’s funeral also drew national attention. About 200 mourners gathered in the church, with hundreds of others gathered outdoors. Activists like the Rev. Al Sharpton came to town. “Brother Byrd’s innocent blood alone could very well be the blood that changes the course of our country,” civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said at the funeral. “Because no one has captured the nation’s attention like this tragedy.''
Byrd was laid to rest in the Black section of the city’s segregated cemetery, where Black and White bodies were separated by a wrought-iron fence.
Politicians in Washington and in state capitals across the country began calling for tougher hate-crime laws. Within weeks, Byrd’s oldest daughter, Renee Byrd Mullins, 27 at the time, was at the U.S. Capitol. “The men who murdered my father had a choice that morning, and they chose violence,” Mullins told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Therefore, the laws of the land should punish them.”
In 2001, Texas lawmakers passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, and in 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. (Shepard was a gay student who was tortured to death in Wyoming the same year Byrd was killed. Wyoming remains one of a few states without a hate-crime law.)
The three White men charged with Byrd’s murder were convicted before the laws were in place. But in their trials, prosecutors still highlighted their racist attitudes, including a note one of the defendants, John William King, 23 at the time, sent to another. “Seriously though bro, reguardless [sic] of the outcome of this, we have made history and shall die proudly remembered if need be … Gotta go. Much Aryan Love. Respect and Honor my brother in arms,” wrote King, a laborer.
In aftermath, hope
In the aftermath of Byrd’s death, his family started the Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing, with high hopes of putting a spotlight on the racist attitudes that led to his death. In 1999, Jasper built a public park around the corner from Byrd’s childhood home and named it in his honor. The family planned to open a museum in town that would focus on hate crimes and race reconciliation.
“It seemed like we could take what happened to James and really change things,” said Byrd Harris, the youngest of Byrd’s eight siblings. She dreamed of using the foundation to create a nationwide hotline for people who felt that hate crimes they had experienced weren’t taken seriously by local officials.
But almost immediately their efforts ran into trouble. After receiving $100,000 from former boxing promoter Don King, the foundation garnered no other major gifts. The family has used small donations collected over the years to award two annual college scholarships of $1,000 to local high school graduates.
“At the time, we all worked,” said Byrd Harris. “We couldn’t quit our full-time job to support the foundation because we didn’t have the funds to do that and to travel the world and tell James’s story.”
Stella Byrd, Bryd’s mother, ran a small museum out of the family home until it burned down several years ago. The museum, no bigger than a closet, contained photos of Byrd and some of the letters and artwork the family had received from ordinary people and dignitaries around the world after Byrd’s death.
At the Jasper County Historical Museum, visitors are greeted by a timeline on the north wall highlighting key moments in the area: In 1968, schools officially integrated; in 1991, Garth Brooks headlined at the Jasper Lions Club Rodeo.
The city’s establishment as a hub for cotton and timber production is featured, but that it was powered by a large population of enslaved people, nearly 40 percent of the county’s population in 1860, is not mentioned.
Neither is Byrd’s murder.
“We are working on how to address it as a museum,” said Tod Lawlis, the museum’s part-time director. He recently heard of an exhibit about Byrd in Austin, 250 miles away, but hasn’t seen it and isn’t sure whether he will bring it to Jasper. “We’re trying to make arrangements to see it, and if it’s fair, we want to try to get it here,” said Lawlis, who is White. “It is part of the county’s history. We want to tell it in an unbiased, fair way.”
Before running the museum, Lawlis had a long career as a teacher, including in Jasper. Byrd didn’t come up in any of his classes either, he said, noting that it would have been covered in seventh-grade Texas history. He taught sixth and eighth grade.
But he said he had many difficult conversations about other sensitive racial issues, including slavery, in his classroom. Once a student asked if the teacher would have owned slaves in the past. Lawlis acknowledged to his students that given the morals of that time, he wasn’t sure, he said.
The state’s most-used Texas history textbook, “Texas History,” published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also doesn’t mention Byrd. Such textbooks must conform to standards passed by the State Board of Education, which has been at the center of the political battle over how the nation’s history is taught.
The board’s president and the book’s publisher did not return calls seeking comment. The Jasper Independent School District’s superintendent and director of curriculum and instruction also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Byrd’s exclusion from textbooks in Texas is not surprising, said Staci Childs, a Democrat who represents parts of Houston and its suburbs on the State Board of Education. Childs says she was inspired to run for a seat on the board last year after recent efforts to limit what schools teach.
“It’s hard navigating this in Texas,” said Childs, who is serving a two-year term on the board.
“I wouldn’t tell a 4-year-old, ‘Hey, there’s this guy named James Byrd. Let me show you what happened to him,’” said Childs, who is Black. “But I would put it in a curriculum — especially in Texas with the issues that we’re grappling with — at an age-appropriate level.”
KiLeigh Isom, a White 19-year-old Jasper native, said she learned of Byrd’s death only recently from a friend and then asked her parents about it. “We sat down and had a big conversation about it,” she said.
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“It should be talked about, but it’s too controversial for people,” said Isom, who just finished her freshman year at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex. “A lot of parents and teachers try to hide it from kids.”
The federal and state hate-crimes laws named after Byrd also haven’t had the impact supporters say they had hoped for. Few cases have been pursued under either statute, and some supporters of the laws blame that on political considerations.
The laws are similar to unfunded mandates, passed without giving local prosecutors and police the resources to prove that suspects acted with hateful intent, said Jeannine Bell, a professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
“They passed the law and everyone thought the fight was over,” said Bell, who has written a book about how police handle hate crimes. “We need prosecutors offices that are serious enough about hate crime that they have special units where people develop the expertise you need to prosecute these laws, where they know what to ask people who have been targeted by hate crimes and what to tell the cops to do to get the evidence they need to convict.”
Jasper wants to reclaim its name
Town leaders say they worry that Jasper, known for its historic courthouse square, will forever be tainted by the misdeeds of a few people.
Despite its reputation, Jasper is a diverse community, they say. Black residents make up 45 percent of the city’s population, while White and Latino residents account for 38 percent and 13 percent, respectively, according to the most recent census figures. The city’s political leadership largely reflects that diversity, they add. The five-member city council has three Black members and two White members.
The city has had two Black mayors, during the time of Byrd’s death and now.
Few other East Texas towns have had that level of Black leadership, locals say.
“Jasper wasn’t perfect,” said Lawlis, the White museum director. “But we got along and this town was a lot more integrated than a lot of the communities around us. But you didn’t see that in the media coverage, and so we’ve been trying to get that side of the story out ever since.”
Town leaders have also heralded the quick convictions of Byrd’s three killers as proof that the town was not a safe haven for racists. Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011, John William King was executed in 2019, and Berry is serving a life sentence and is up for parole in 2038.
“We showed the world that Jasper didn’t support what these men did,” said Lawlis, whose father was the judge in Brewer’s trial.
Amid the city’s struggles, there has been progress — but even that has been shadowed by its reputation.
In 2019, the city celebrated winning a competition to bring the IT company Provalus to town. But in a study published after the bidding process, the Jasper Economic Development Corporation found among the downsides cited by the executives considering the move: “Jasper’s history regarding the infamous dragging death of James Byrd possibly hurting chances with [the company’s] customers.” Provalus declined to comment.
In 2022, Jasper celebrated another victory when a Houston couple, Ed and Sujey Guizar, purchased the city’s historic, 113-year-old Belle Jim Hotel. “The murder was definitely on my mind as we were looking at buying this place,” said Ed Guizar, who is Hispanic. “Our Realtor back in Houston told us this wasn’t a safe place for people of color.”
Despite those concerns, said Guizar, Jasper offered a better opportunity for his family. “A property like this would have cost millions in Houston and we really wanted to own our own thing,” he said.
When they first opened their doors, nearly all of their customers were White, and Guizar says he learned that the Belle Jim Hotel had a reputation in the Black community as an unwelcoming place reserved just for the town’s rich White clients. “For 110 years this was a White-owned hotel — we broke that cycle,” he said. “This is actually a very diverse community, and I think us being the face of a business like this is showing that Jasper is not what people think it is.”
On Juneteenth weekend, the Byrd family gathered at the park that bears his name on the city’s eastern edge. Family members wore white T-shirts with “We won’t forget” written in purple.
Hoping to start a new tradition, they had invited the public to attend in a Facebook post, but the majority of the about two dozen attendees were family members. The city’s mayor read a proclamation passed by the City Council designating June 7 as James Byrd Jr. Day in Jasper.
Byrd’s three children led the event as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren ran around the park. The siblings talked about how they would like their father to be honored: a national holiday, renaming the road where he was killed in his honor, stronger hate-crime laws.
Byrd Harris, Byrd’s sister, says she has her own dreams.
In the aftermath of his death, Jasper residents came together in 1999 to take down the fence that had separated White and Black residents at the local cemetery for more than 100 years. “Give us the power and strength through this rotten and broken fence to repair the fences in our own lives,” the Rev. Ron Foshage, the White pastor of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, said at the ceremony.
But since then, Byrd’s grave has been repeatedly vandalized, including when two White teenagers wrote racial slurs and knocked over the tombstone. The family has had to raise money to replace the tombstone twice.
A new fence has been erected — this time just around Byrd’s grave.
“His gravesite is surrounded by a fence because we still haven’t dealt with hate in this country,” said Byrd Harris. “It’s like he’s still not free, it’s like hate still has a hold on him.”
Byrd Harris, 65, says she hopes that before she dies the fence will no longer be needed.
Free article from WaPo below for pics.
https://wapo.st/47EcDI1
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does that make sense?
you support the people passing those laws.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."