Race in America: The legacy of the murder of James Byrd Jron June 2, 2021 at 12:08 am

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A Texas town still reckons with the 1998 murder of James Byrd Jr at the hands of white supremacists.

Warning: This video contains some upsetting scenes.

On a Saturday night in a small Texas town, three white men offered James Byrd Jr a ride home. The next morning, a little boy found Byrd’s body. He’d been beaten, chained to the back of a truck and dragged alive until he was decapitated – all because he was black.

The BBC went to Jasper, Texas to see how the brutal murder in 1998 changed the Byrd family – and the town.

Video by Angélica M Casas and Chelsea Bailey

Special thanks to KFDM News for archival material

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