In the early morning hours of June 7, 1998, James Byrd, Jr., an African American man, was murdered after being tied to a metal chain and dragged behind a pickup truck down a rural road outside of Jasper, Texas. When his body was found later that morning along a road next to an African American cemetery, only the torso remained, and Mr. Byrd’s body parts were found strewn along a three-mile stretch of road.

The next day, law enforcement arrested three white men and charged them with Mr. Byrd’s murder. The Jasper County Sheriff immediately requested that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lead the investigation. The three suspects all had tattoos indicating membership in white supremacist groups.

The rural community was unprepared for the national attention and deep introspection of racial issues they suddenly faced. CRS assisted the city of Jasper, along with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in contingency planning for a number of national and local demonstrations and marches about issues related to the dragging murder of James Byrd, Jr.

CRS began working in Jasper two days after the incident and stayed on-site for months following Mr. Byrd’s murder. On June 9, CRS facilitated a dialogue between the Mayor of Jasper and approximately 20 faith leaders and community leaders to gain a broad and comprehensive understanding of the community and its issues. While in Jasper, CRS supported community efforts to work together in the aftermath of Mr. Byrd’s murder and stressed the importance of a multi-racial response that included the entire Jasper community. To best assist the people of Jasper, CRS engaged with representatives from the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, faith leaders, and city officials.

Jasper is a small community; the city has less than 10,000 residents and is unaccustomed to the national attention. CRS answered local leaders’ questions about what to expect with a high-profile trial in their city and helped the community adjust to being in the spotlight, including how to handle large protests and visits by celebrities and elected officials.

Two weeks after Mr. Byrd’s murder police learned of an upcoming KKK march and likely counter-protests in Jasper that would test the community’s ability to handle large protests. CRS assisted local law enforcement and community leaders before and during the marches, and provided contingency planning resources to keep the protest groups separate and the events safe. Coordination between CRS, local leaders, and the community kept residents from forming their own counter-demonstration and away from protest areas near the Jasper courthouse.

After arriving in Jasper, CRS learned about long-standing racial issues in the city, especially in the city’s schools. Even though it was the end of the school year, school officials expressed concerns about how Mr. Byrd’s murder would impact student relations when classes resumed in the fall. To address these concerns, CRS provided conflict management, tension indicators, team building, preparedness, and cultural awareness training for all school district staff.

To achieve lasting change, Jasper residents formed a multi-racial, community-wide group to be the vehicle for Jasper to deal with the present, face the future, and make itself a better community, and requested CRS help the city in this endeavor. In response to the request, and to help Jasper build a stronger future, CRS recommended the group assess the current state of race relations and develop an action plan for the next year. CRS supported this self-examination of how race relations were affecting businesses, schools, law enforcement, government, and other major sectors of the community, with a special emphasis on youth.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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