Hate Crime - by Joyce King (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

On June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr., a forty-nine-year-old black man, was walking home from a party when three white men in a pickup truck offered him a ride. They drove Byrd out to a lonely country road, tied him to a logging chain, and dragged him three miles to his death.

Joyce King, an award-winning journalist and native Texan, was assigned to cover the story, which drew international media headlines. In Hate Crime, she provides a chilling re-creation of the slaying and the subsequent trials. But she also moves beyond the details of the case to provide insight into the minds of the murderers, and to investigate the Texas prison system in which they developed their virulent racism. King also explores how the town of Jasper, Texas, endured a tragedy that threatened to divide its residents. A first-rate work of reportage, Hate Crime is also a searing look at how race continues to shape life in America.

Review Quotes

"A gripping account of an unimaginably brutal murder . . . [and] a lesson in how to look racism in the eye and not blink." --O, The Oprah Magazine

"[A]chieves its greatest possible goal: setting the event in history as a disturbing record of continued American racism." --San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] remarkable balance of candor, clarity and feeling." --Los Angeles Times

[S]hows readers a thriving subculture of hatred few of us will ever encounter." --Austin American-Statesman

"[R]iveting. . . . Exceptional reporting takes the reader behind the headlines and through each aspect of this emotionally wrenching case." --Arizona Daily Star

About the Author

A former reporter and anchor for a CBS radio affiliate, Joyce King is an award-winning twenty-year broadcast veteran. She also writes guest columns and opinion pieces for USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Dallas Morning News. This is her first book. She lives in Dallas.