Last Respects for a Tragic Symbol of Pain

Sweat and tears bled together in James Byrd Jr.’s hometown Saturday as hundreds of mourners gathered around his steel coffin to honor America’s latest symbol of racial hurt and, possibly, healing.

Black leaders from across the nation trekked to the triple-digit heat of these East Texas woods, down Martin Luther King Road and into the Greater New Bethel Baptist Church, where the 49-year-old musician and former vacuum-cleaner salesman was hailed as a martyr--and the three white men who allegedly dragged and dismembered him from the back of their pickup truck last weekend were condemned as terrorists from a dark, if not so distant, past.

“Brother Byrd is the person who represents the national pain,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended the funeral along Kweisi Mfume, the president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People; New York minister Al Sharpton; and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Jackson’s voice echoed from the wooden pulpit of the tiny sanctuary, which was being guarded by two Jasper County sheriff’s deputies in white cowboy hats, out to a portable loudspeaker set up in the parking lot by a tent for the overflow crowd. As the congregants mopped their brows with dish towels and waved cardboard fans depicting the Last Supper, Jackson urged them to “choose redemption over retaliation” and to “turn a crucifixion into a resurrection.”

Byrd’s polished casket was carried to the back of a black Cadillac hearse. A car alarm tolled in the distance. “Who should I fear?” a preacher chanted. A caravan of limousines then headed for the cemetery, across Highway 96, where a sign at the Splish Splash Car Wash read: “Jasper Texas is mourning hurting crying. America please pray for us.”

The funeral marked the end of a horrific week for Jasper, which found itself thrust into an unwelcome spotlight, its racial closet swung open for inspection. The savagery and brazenness of Byrd’s murder--he was dragged for two miles by a chain tied around his ankles--revived images of what had seemed, or what many had hoped, was a bygone era in the South. More than a few people on Saturday mentioned the name of Emmett Till, the black teenager who was beaten and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly flirting with a white Mississippi woman in 1955.

“We’re not going to tolerate lynchings,” Waters told the churchgoers. “We’re not going to tolerate the brutalization of any of our citizens.”

President Clinton telephoned Byrd’s mother to speak of “his sadness and his determination to see that justice is done,” said Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, who attended the service. Chicago Bulls bad-boy basketball star, Dennis Rodman, who had earlier offered to cover the burial costs, sent word that he would also donate $25,000 to a fund for Byrd’s three children, ages 16, 20 and 27. Jasper’s most famous resident, country singer Mark Chestnutt, had a spray of yellow roses sent to the grave site.

“Byrd always said he would be a star some day, that he was going to put Jasper on the map,” said Ruthie Porter, 51, who recalled that her lifelong friend had a voice that could soar to the heavens, especially when he did his Al Green impersonation. “I know he never dreamed it would be for this. Nobody ever dreamed that anybody in Jasper would have this much hatred in their heart.”

Leaders in this old logging town of 8,000 people--about 45% of whom are black, including the mayor--did their best to drive home that point. They portrayed the killing as an isolated incident, one that had more to do with the pathologies of the three suspects than with any flaw in Jasper’s soul. Although most agreed that racial tensions here rarely boil over to such an extreme, others who watched Byrd lowered into the boggy soil wondered how many injustices must be suffered before an aberration becomes part of a historical pattern.

“On the one hand, it’s shocking,” said Marvin Brennard, a 43-year-old retired Army sergeant who drove to Jasper from his home just across the state line in Louisiana. “On the other hand, it’s not. There’s always something lurking beneath the surface, always something brewing, even if it looks like things are getting better.”

A small contingent of Black Muslims and several members of the Dallas-based New Black Panther Party showed up with semiautomatic rifles Saturday, vowing to defend Jasper against any white supremacist groups, should the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Brotherhood decide to rally. Authorities reported no trouble.

The three suspects, all ex-convicts--Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, of Sulphur Springs, Texas; and Shawn Allen Berry and John William King, both 23 and from Jasper--remained in custody on charges of murder. Although officials say that King and Brewer were once monitored for possible affiliations with extremist white prison gangs while serving burglary sentences, Byrd’s slaying has yet to be classified as a hate crime, a necessary step if his assailants are to face the death penalty under federal law.

At least one of the men is believed to have known Byrd, a conspicuous if generally kind-hearted drinker who himself served time for theft and forgery. They allegedly spotted him walking home from a niece’s bridal shower late June 6 and offered him a ride. The next morning, police found his headless body on a rural road, followed by a trail of more than 80 pieces of flesh and personal possessions, including Byrd’s dentures, shoes and wallet.

“They put my friend away, they put him away good,” said Porter, rivulets of perspiration dripping down her cheeks, as she sat on the cemetery grass and stared at the gleaming box that contained what was left of Byrd’s body.

A white woman walked up and said that her name was Rose. “I just want to let y’all know that Mr. Byrd didn’t deserve this.”

“We appreciate it, baby,” Porter said.

“I’m sorry this is the way we have to meet,” the woman added.

“Maybe this will bring us all closer together,” Porter sighed. “If this won’t, what will?”