Murder Victim. He was the third of nine children born to Stella Mae Sharp and James Byrd Sr. The family was heavily involved in their local church community. He was a graduate of the last segregated class of Jasper Rowe High School in 1967. After graduation, he worked as a vacuum salesman, married, and had three children.
Byrd was killed in Jasper, Texas, by three white men who were members of the "Confederate Knights-Ku Klux Klan." He was walking along Huff Creek Road when the other men picked him up, violently killed him, and left part of his body in front of a Black church. His murder was reported all over the United States and internationally. Byrd was buried near an old iron fence on the Black side of Jasper City Cemetery. That fence, which separated the Black and white graves for more than 150 years, was torn down in 1999.
Media coverage at the murder trial of the three men, Russell Brewer, John William King, and Shawn Berry, was extensive. All three were convicted of capital murder, with Berry receiving life in prison while Brewer and King received the death penalty. (They were executed by the state in 2011 and 2019, respectively.) A documentary film about the crime, "Two Towns of Jasper," aired on PBS in January 2003. Author Joyce King published the work "Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas" about the case.
The Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress and signed into federal law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
Byrd was killed in Jasper, Texas, by three white men who were members of the "Confederate Knights-Ku Klux Klan." He was walking along Huff Creek Road when the other men picked him up, violently killed him, and left part of his body in front of a Black church. His murder was reported all over the United States and internationally. Byrd was buried near an old iron fence on the Black side of Jasper City Cemetery. That fence, which separated the Black and white graves for more than 150 years, was torn down in 1999.
Media coverage at the murder trial of the three men, Russell Brewer, John William King, and Shawn Berry, was extensive. All three were convicted of capital murder, with Berry receiving life in prison while Brewer and King received the death penalty. (They were executed by the state in 2011 and 2019, respectively.) A documentary film about the crime, "Two Towns of Jasper," aired on PBS in January 2003. Author Joyce King published the work "Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas" about the case.
The Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress and signed into federal law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
Murder Victim. He was the third of nine children born to Stella Mae Sharp and James Byrd Sr. The family was heavily involved in their local church community. He was a graduate of the last segregated class of Jasper Rowe High School in 1967. After graduation, he worked as a vacuum salesman, married, and had three children.
Byrd was killed in Jasper, Texas, by three white men who were members of the "Confederate Knights-Ku Klux Klan." He was walking along Huff Creek Road when the other men picked him up, violently killed him, and left part of his body in front of a Black church. His murder was reported all over the United States and internationally. Byrd was buried near an old iron fence on the Black side of Jasper City Cemetery. That fence, which separated the Black and white graves for more than 150 years, was torn down in 1999.
Media coverage at the murder trial of the three men, Russell Brewer, John William King, and Shawn Berry, was extensive. All three were convicted of capital murder, with Berry receiving life in prison while Brewer and King received the death penalty. (They were executed by the state in 2011 and 2019, respectively.) A documentary film about the crime, "Two Towns of Jasper," aired on PBS in January 2003. Author Joyce King published the work "Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas" about the case.
The Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress and signed into federal law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
Byrd was killed in Jasper, Texas, by three white men who were members of the "Confederate Knights-Ku Klux Klan." He was walking along Huff Creek Road when the other men picked him up, violently killed him, and left part of his body in front of a Black church. His murder was reported all over the United States and internationally. Byrd was buried near an old iron fence on the Black side of Jasper City Cemetery. That fence, which separated the Black and white graves for more than 150 years, was torn down in 1999.
Media coverage at the murder trial of the three men, Russell Brewer, John William King, and Shawn Berry, was extensive. All three were convicted of capital murder, with Berry receiving life in prison while Brewer and King received the death penalty. (They were executed by the state in 2011 and 2019, respectively.) A documentary film about the crime, "Two Towns of Jasper," aired on PBS in January 2003. Author Joyce King published the work "Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas" about the case.
The Texas Legislature passed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act in 2001. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed by Congress and signed into federal law by President Barack Obama in October 2009.
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