The Murder of James Byrd Jr. In June 1998, a sadistic murder of a middle-aged black man from Jasper, Texas, rekindled memories of practices of blood stained lynching American past. James Byrd, Jr., 49, was savagely beaten unconscious, chained by the neck to the back of a pickup truck and dragged for miles on rural roads outside the town of Jasper. Byrd is believed to have survived much of this experience, that is, until he was beheaded. Three white men, John William King, 23, Shawn Berry, 23, (both had ties to white supremacist groups), and Lawrence Brewer Jr., 31, were arrested. Brewer and King were sentenced to death for a hate crime that shocked the nation. Berry was sent to prison for life to understand why...