Barbara Blackmon, a Democrat from Mississippi, said Anderson’s killing made her “wonder just how far we’ve come.” Three were convicted of one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Shepard-Byrd Act. Security footage shows that when Anderson tried to stand up after the attack, they ran him over with a pickup truck and killed him. They found 48-year-old James Craig Anderson in a motel parking lot and attacked him, shouting “white power.” In June 2011, a group of white teenagers drove around Jackson, Mississippi, harassing black Americans. In Dubuque, Iowa, that same year, charges were brought against a white man with a swastika tattoo who assaulted a black American man and repeatedly kicked and jumped on his head until he was unconscious, according to federal court records. Dylann Roof was convicted on 33 federal hate crime charges and sentenced to death for the attack. “The history of (James Byrd Jr.’s) death, people never, never going to forget about that.” (Danny Smitherman/News21)ĭuring a Bible study meeting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, three years ago, a young white supremacist shot and killed nine black parishioners. Hunter, founder and president of the Jasper branch of the NAACP, said racism is nothing new in Texas. We really haven’t healed from that since. “The history of (Byrd’s) death, people never, never gonna forget about it. Hunter, 89, the founder and president of the NAACP in Jasper, Texas, for the past 40 years. “It has always been that way,” said Booker T. “There are different looks that even my children get since Trump became president.”įrom the historically unwelcoming American South to cities across America, federal hate crimes against black Americans in recent years have ranged from brutal beatings and violent killings to burning churches, firebombing homes and outspoken threats of harm. “I’ve been living in Houston for my whole life and I hadn’t experienced things like that,” Crowder said. He started shouting phrases like “go back to (expletive) Africa” and “Trump should build a wall for you n****rs,” then began to swerve toward her, she said. After the election, they feel emboldened to act out these statements that have racial overtones in them.”Ĭhristina Crowder was driving down the interstate in Houston with her two biracial daughters in the backseat last year when a car pulled up next to her and the driver opened his windows. “And so, those people who believe in discrimination of any kind gravitated to that campaign. “When this president campaigned, it was a campaign of division and bigotry,” said Richard Rose, president of the Atlanta branch of the NAACP. While black Americans have long been targets of hate, advocacy groups and victims told News presidential campaign and the election of President Donald Trump may have encouraged more people to express their intolerance toward black Americans. “You still see it all over, in all the cities and in the rural places, it’s still with us,” said Gray, who is now an attorney in Kerrville, Texas. Former Jasper County prosecutor Guy James Gray looks through 20-year-old evidence photos from the James Byrd Jr.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |