Klan Rallies in Town Where Man Was Dragged to Death

The Ku Klux Klan rallied Saturday, saying it condemned the slaying of a black man who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck, allegedly by three white men.

Black counterdemonstrators carrying guns showed up and police kept the two sides apart. Two men, one black and one white, were arrested for disorderly conduct as the 90-minute klan rally ended.

“If nothing else, we’ve taught Jasper County freedom of speech,” klansman Darrell Flinn said. “And we’ve gotten to denounce the murder.”

James Byrd Jr. died June 7 after being beaten and then dragged behind a pickup truck for more than two miles along a rural road in this East Texas town.

Three white men charged with his murder had ties to white supremacist groups, authorities said.

About 25 klan members paraded in the courthouse square, with humid temperatures reaching the 90s.

Tensions were heightened when about 50 black activists arrived. Shouting “black power!” they pointed shotguns, rifles and other weapons in the air as they marched.

“These men are here to freely exercise their divine and, yes, constitutional rights after building this country for 400 years to defend ourselves and carry armed and loaded weapons to defend the black community against this murderous and hypocritical outfit known as the Ku Klux Klan,” said Malik Z. Shabazz, an attorney for the New Black Panther Party.

Authorities roped off a two-block radius around the square near the courthouse. Texas Rangers, FBI agents and other law officers patrolled the area.

Most residents in this community of about 8,000 took the advice of officials and stayed away. But about 200 spectators did show up, some of them jeering as the klan emerged from the courthouse door carrying flags.

Shawn Berry and John William King, both 23, and Lawrence Russell Brewer Jr., 31, are charged with Byrd’s slaying. All three have prison records, and authorities have said at least two wear tattoos of white racist prison gangs. Prosecutors have said they will seek capital murder charges against at least two of the men when the case is presented to a grand jury next month.