Hate Crime Topic: True Crime, Murder - General Author: King, Joyce Publisher: Pantheon Books ISBN: 0375421327 Format: Hardcover, 225 pages. List Price: $24.00
click to enlarge

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

On June 7, 1998, James Byrd, Jr., a forty-nine-year-old black man, was dragged to his death while chained to the back of a pick-up truck driven by three young white men. It all happened in Jasper, a small town in east Texas that, within twenty-four hours of the discovery of the murder, would be inextricably linked to the "Texas crime of the century." In this superbly written examination of the murder and its aftermath, award-winning journalist Joyce King takes us on a journey that begins at the scene of the crime and extends into the minds of the three men who so casually ended James Byrd's life. With unerring acuity, King describes the childhood and adolescence of each of them. Exploring the prison system in which two of them did time before the murder, she shows how it played a major role in shaping their attitudes - racial and otherwise - and outlook. Finally, King writes with candor and clarity about how the crime has affected her - as a journalist, a black woman, and a native Texan.