In 1998, a group of white men with a history of racist sentiments seek out trouble and find a local black man, whom they tortured and killed by dragging him along a lonely country road in backwoods east Texas, where the scars of slavery days were still quite fresh.

Featuring Amanda from The State of Perfect Balance podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-state-of-perfect-balance-a-true-crime-podcast/id1437727704

Written by David Wayne Young
Researched by Kat Morris


“Grass Crown” by Hyperchromatic
https://soundcloud.com/chromatic-1/grass-crown-2

Thorns and Leaves EP
https://hyperchromatic.bandcamp.com/album/thorns-and-leaves


SOURCES:

A Death in Texas: A Story of Race, Murder, and a Small Town’s Struggle for Redemption by Dina Temple- Raston

Wade Goodwyn of NPR
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/24/716647585/texas-to-execute-man-convicted-in-dragging-death-of-james-byrd-jr

BIOGRAPHY.COM
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/james-byrd-jr

The New York Times, Various Issues
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/james-byrd-jr

Shane Croucher of Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com/james-byrd-jr-lynching-texas-death-row-execution-1394474

Eli Rosenberg and Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/25/james-byrd-jr-killer-john-william-king-executed-texas-hate-crime/

Elliott McLaughlin of CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/us/james-byrd-killer-execution-john-william-king/index.html

David K. Li and Alex Johnson of NBC News
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/john-william-king-executed-james-byrd-jr-s-brutal-dragging-n998136

The Associated Press and Claire Cardona of the Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2019/04/25/racist-killer-executed-decades-after-dragging-james-byrd-jr-to-his-death-near-jasper/

Jolie McCullough of the Texas Tribune
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/24/texas-execution-john-william-king-james-byrd/

Audrey McNamara and Julia Arciga of The Daily Beast
https://www.thedailybeast.com/james-byrd-jrs-family-ready-for-execution-of-john-william-king-who-dragged-black-man-to-death-in-jasper-texas