Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas

During the summer of 1998, James Byrd Jr., was dragged to death by three men in Jasper, Texas. Joyce King offers a detailed account of the racially motivated murder and the three emotional trials that followed. King's novel offers the facts of the case as well as a fair examination into the reason why Byrd was killed. This book highlights the cruelty of hatred and racism, as well as the desire to move beyond it in the name of justice.

The beginning of this book was awful - not awfully written - just awfully sad, awfully detailed, awfully ugly. Midway through the story, the writer's knack for describing the small to convey the "bigness" of this particular mundanely categorized hate crime sickened me. She wrote "The [...] is shredded and [...] removed by the dragging." It sickened and shamed me. I was embarrassed for having not known - embarrassed for failing to pay attention to the particulars. Embarassed for having filed this person's story in a makeshift generic Emmit Till file. After being forced to view (in a sense) the victim's remains, and being made aware of the remorseless attitudes of the perpetrators, I had little patience for the writer's need to explore and explain prison culture in such depth. I was not interested in theories that placed blame anywhere other than squarely upon the hearts and souls (or lack thereof) of the persons who dared to commit such a heinous act. However, upon completing the book I was satisfied. The writer had meticulously attended to every facet of the story. I appreciated the way the writer interrupted the factual reporting with personal narrative. It kept the reader mindful that the story being told was true and real. Though reading this story was at times painful, gruesome and grueling, I realize that facing this reality was necessary in order to give purpose to the suffering endured by James Byrd, Jr.

When King came to our campus to lecture about this book, I was naturally interested in attending, but believed I knew the story already. (A man had been brutally murdered in a small Texas town because of his skin color). I am glad I went on impulse because both the presentation and the book throughly examines intersections of race, gender, ecconomic status while imploring all of us to work together for the proverbial betterment of human society. What it lacks for in volume it more than makes up for with substantive content and heart-wrenching insight. Alternating between detached reporting and personal narratives, this story chronicles the best and the worst of human condition. Just because it is easy to simplify things into a 'soundbyte binary' does not mean the action effectively generates learning, indeed such labeling effectively stops the process.Without dilluting Byrd's saga, the author also recounts her complex feelings during the investigation. Briefly living among the residents of Jasper Texas in order to complete the book, she learned good people come from all backgrounds and there was no shortage of townspeople (including the law enforcement) who roundly condemed the act.

This book was many things to me. Disturbing, insightful and educational. The book depicts the Mr. Byrd's death so vividly that at times I felt myself being dragged behind the truck. I had to put the book down many times but I was unable to stay away for long. The author did a very good job of exploring the backgrounds of the men convicted of this heinous crime. You must be made of stone to be left untouched after reading this book.

If any of us profess to sincerely care about this evil crime, and about race and prisons in America, this book is a must-read. The writing about this frightening, ugly subject is professional, insightful, comprehensive, and exquisitely rendered. Joyce King, at no small cost to herself, has given us a gift that we may not want, but we desperately need, that she hopes, even perhaps at no small cost to ourselves, we will actually DO something about instead of just talk about.