Posted on 09/21/2011 6:09:07 PM PDT by Borges
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — White supremacist gang member Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed Wednesday evening for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas.
Byrd, 49, was chained to the back of a pickup truck and pulled whip-like to his death along a bumpy asphalt road in one of the most grisly hate crime murders in recent Texas history.
Brewer, 44, was asked if he had any final words, to which he replied: "No. I have no final statement."
He glanced at his parents watching through a nearby window, took several deep breaths and closed his eyes. A single tear hung on the edge of his right eye as he was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m., 10 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms, both covered with intricate black tattoos.
Byrd's sisters also were among the witnesses in an adjacent room.
"Hopefully, today's execution of Brewer can remind all of us that racial hatred and prejudice leads to terrible consequence for the victim, the victim's family, for the perpetrator and for the perpetrator's family," Clara Taylor, one of Byrd's sisters, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Vidor, on Interstate 10 a few miles west of the Louisiana border, was founded by the father of the movie director King Vidor. Its economy is largely dependent on jobs from the much bigger refinery towns Port Arthur and Beaumont. But until the early 1970’s it was known for being something else: a hotbed of Klan activity.
At least six competing branches of the Klan had bases here, including one that set up its headquarters and store on Main Street. A hand-lettered sign stood untouched near the entrance to the town for several years in the 1960’s: “Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Set on You in Vidor.”
While there are still Klan sympathizers here, the official Klan apparatus has drifted away, people here say. The city canceled a 1982 Christmas parade after an outside Klan group said it would enter a float. But now Mr. DecQuir’s move has brought back the specter of Klan rallies, even as most of the participants came from out of town.
For instance, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Waco, rallied in Vidor on Feb. 20, protesting the integration of the housing project as well as a recent subpoena served by the Texas Department of Human Rights that sought the Klan group’s membership records.
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=105334
This is the right link
There have never been any signs like that in Jasper.
The blacks in Jasper are a lot more racist than the whites. We have 4 blacks on city council...and in Feb. they named a black man who had never been a cop as police chief. Since Feb. he has taken 2 vacations and got a pay raise...city policy states an employee has to be employed for a year and then evaluated for a raise. They have throw city policy out the window.
Oh! Yes, the police chief is black.
There are several law suits for discrimination by man who were a lot more qualified There are a least 6 lawsuits filed.
I should not be a surprise that lawyers from Beaumont are keeping things stirred up. They had Dick Gregory here last night. He had a filthy mouth.
Yep, where was BJ? OR the Tookie fans? oh, wait, this was a white guy.......nevermind....damn white people....
I could hear Ken Hamblin’s turlet flushing!
Would have preferred they gave the dude to the blacks and let them get their own justice.
He hadn't as of yesterday. He told Channel 11 (In Houston) that he felt no regrets and he'd do it again.
Unless something changed...he most certainly is feeling a lot of regret now....
Eternity in Hell, is the only “just” punishment for such an act as that, I do believe.
Oh please!
THE KLAN AND THE BLACK PANTHERS GET TOGETHER IN JASPER, TEXAS
http://www.itouch.net/~radar/jasper/
Never been to either place, I don’t know.
I’ve just heard for the last 30 years about all those, “N-word, don’t let the sun set on your ass in Whiteville” billboards that were supposedly all over the South.
I did a google image search, couldn’t find a single photo.
Cameras have been with us since the Crimean War. Lots of folks claim to “remember” seeing them, but not one photo exists?
I’m having a little problem believing it. Some photos might help me believe it.
Too bad it took so long.
Most of those aren’t really anti death penalty nuts, they are anti gun nuts playing the race card.
They are trying to send the message that if blacks get guns they will kill a cop or whites, so we need to get rid of guns.
USSC will...Texas will require all justices to rule on both comin’ up soon. It was one of the liberal yuks on the bench that stopped it...probably someone like bull dike Kagan.
February 11, 2009 10:40 PM
KKK Rally Stirs Racial Tension
“Jasper is part of the invisible empire,” said Rick Anderson, grand titan of the Knights of the White Kamellia, based in nearby Vidor. “Make no mistake about it, this is Klan country.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/06/27/national/main12722.shtml
I grew up in East Texas and have heard that old BS about this infamous but fictional billboard, except it was either Mineral Wells or Mexia or Gladewater.
Having run up and down that road between Jasper and Beaumont many times, it ain’t just a few miles between and VIDOR sure as heck ain’t next door. In 66 years never saw or every heard of your dream billboard. You need to walk this back!!
I recall seeing similar signs at the city limits of another small Texas town — but that was 60 years ago or so. IIRC, those may have even shared the same post with the city limits signs...
Everybody “remembers,” but not one single black civil rights person (even way back then) ever took a picture?
I’m calling this “false memory syndrome” at best, until I see pictures.
A Brownie camera wasn’t expensive, even then.
Even as an early teen, my thought at the time was, “The merchants in this town are stupid to drive away business...” It never made sense to me.
If there is a Klan here they stay well hidden. The Blacks don't know of a Klan in Jasper.
The New Black Panthers won't come back because they didn't like the way they were treated when they were here before...law enforcement let them carry guns...with out bullets.
There is no comparison between Jasper and Vidor...and I get that info from Blacks! Blacks and whites talk and ask each other what we're hearing.
This is a small town. Many blacks and whites have grown up together and still talk when mess is going on.
Yep, I’m calling BS on all the “N-word, don’t let let the sun set” billboards too.
The closest to it I can remember seeing with my own eyes was the
Koffee
Kup
Kafe
diner on old 301 near the GA-FL border. The sign over the diner was arranged as I typed it.
Actually most of the so-called sundown towns were up in Yankeeland. Those billboards (such as the one below) were found in towns in Illinois and Indiana.
Greenville, Texas did have this sign but it was merely a statement of fact, wasn't a threat and certainly was not racist. It was just pride in the excellent farmland in Hunt County:
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