A Shocking Hate Crime in Mississippi
Posted: August 8, 2011 Filed under: Civil Rights, Crime, racism | Tags: aggravated assault, Byron De La Beckwith, death penalty, Deryl Dedmon, hate crimes, Jackson, James Craig Anderson, John Aaron Rice, Medgar Evers, Mississippi, murder, Racism, White Citizen's Council 19 Comments
Medgar Evers
Mississippi has a dark history of racism. It was in the state’s capital Jackson that Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963.
On the morning of June 12, 1963, around 12:20 a.m., Medgar Evers arrived home from a long meeting at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church located at 2464 Kelley Street. He got out of his car, arms filled with “Jim Crow Must Go” T-shirts, and walked toward the kitchen door when a shot was fired from a high-powered rifle, striking Evers in the back. Myrlie heard the shot, ran outside with the children behind her, and saw Medgar lying face down in the carport. Next-door-neighbor Houston Wells heard the shot and called the police. The police arrived only minutes later and provided an escort as Wells drove Evers to the emergency room of the University of Mississippi Medical Center on North State Street. Evers died shortly after 1:00 a.m. of loss of blood and internal injuries.
A white man was arrested and charged with the murder of Evers.
On June 22, 1963, Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens’ Council, was arrested and charged with the slaying of Medgar Evers. Beckwith was tried twice for Evers’s murder, first in February and later in April 1964. Both trials (before all-white male jurors) ended in hung juries. Beckwith was not retried for the Evers murder until 30 years later. In a two-week trial, held in February 1994 before a jury of eight blacks and four whites, Beckwith was found guilty of the murder of Evers, for which he received a life sentence. Beckwith served only seven years of his life sentence at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County before dying of a heart attack January 21, 2001.
Nearly half a century later, Jackson, Mississippi is once again the site of a vicious, racially-motivated murder. This time, the crime was caught on video.
James Craig Anderson
On a recent Sunday morning just before dawn, two carloads of white teenagers drove to Jackson, Mississippi, on what the county district attorney says was a mission of hate: to find and hurt a black person.
In a parking lot on the western side of town they found their victim.
James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old auto plant worker, was standing in a parking lot, near his car. The teens allegedly beat Anderson repeatedly, yelled racial epithets, including “White Power!” according to witnesses.
Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says a group of the teens then climbed into their large Ford F250 green pickup truck, floored the gas, and drove the truck right over Anderson, killing him instantly.
You can watch the video at the CNN link if you are so inclined. The video was taken from some distance away.
Deryl Dedmon, Jr.
The young man who proposed to his friends that they attack a black person–any black person–and who drove his truck over Anderson’s already battered body is Deryl Dedmon, Jr., age 18. Dedmon had been robbed a few weeks previously, and wanted some kind of twisted “revenge,” according to the New York Daily News.
According to the CNN article linked above,
Shortly after he allegedly drove the truck over Anderson, Dedmon allegedly boasted and laughed about the killing, according to testimony given by some of the teens to detectives.
“I ran that nigger over,” Dedmon allegedly said in a phone conversation to the teens in the other car.
He repeated the racial language in subsequent conversations, according to the law enforcement officials.
“He was not remorseful he was laughing, laughing about the killing,” said district attorney Smith.
Dedmon and the driver of the SUV, John Aaron Rice, have been arrested. Dedmon has been charged with murder, but a judge reduced the charges against Rice to aggravated assault. None of the other teenagers who were involved have not been charged with anything. Reportedly the two people in the car with Dedmon were girls. Rice had driven off with the others before the murder.
WJTV in Jackson talked to a former classmate of Dedmon’s, Branden Richardson, who said he was bullied by Dedmon and isn’t surprised to learn of the terrible crime.
“Didn’t surprise me at all, whatsoever, none at all,” says Richardson.
Richardson went to James Anderson’s funeral. Not because he knew Anderson, but because he knew that it could have been his own funeral.
“I very much felt that it could have been, a different day, it could have been me in that casket,” Richardson tells us. “I believe that just because Deryl didn’t like me.”
What I want to know is, why aren’t the other participants in this hate crime being prosecuted? They apparently chose to go along after Dedmon proposed hurting a black person. Isn’t participation in a felony in which someone is killed usually prosecuted as murder? Why isn’t the death penalty on the table? After all, this is Mississippi, where the death penalty is often invoked. Will justice be served in this case?
We’ll have to keep on eye on this one.
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by other aren’t the other participants prosecuted? ? do you mean the two girls that were in his truck??
And the other people who beat Anderson–the ones in the SUV.
BB
this story is not over yet just lets see how it all plays out
What’s your point? I’m just reporting a news story about a crime that is on video.
The other teens are seen in the video and participated in the beating, then one male teen with two girls (teens) ran him over and that was the fatal injuries that cause his death. And yes, the news report I saw said only one person was charged and another 18 year old had been arrested but no charges had been filed.
White Teens Murder Black Man In MS (Graphic Warning)
The second person is charged with assault, as I quoted in the post.
Point taken, I was just replying to Boogie and thought he might find the above vid discussion interesting.
I know you post the up to date info…thanks BB.
No problem, WV. Maybe there will be more charges eventually. I hope so.
Anonymous said…
I’ve noticed the over the past few months(years) a surge of senseless crimes committed by white youths making the daily headlines ie. loughner, the siblings b.s, the mississippi teen white power killers (which should’ve made headlines), florida party teen kills parents with hammer, etc etc the list and the history of “white teen falling down” continues on. Often these teens come from well to do homes in the suburban, gated community of town with access to cars, guns, drugs, “friends”, and money to back up whatever idea that comes to mind. Which makes these people more dangerous than any black man could ever be perceived or stereotyped. Why? Because often their money and influence (esp in small communities and m.s) can buy them out of anything including murder caught on video camera and eye witnesses. Also, Obviously the good ole boy network has done a fine job of keeping this gruesome incident out of the national spotlight for some time – june 26 and the story is just breaking this week.? The governor (Haley Barbour) of miss. should hold a press conference to not only apologize (after the trial) to the Anderson family but to also denounce all acts of violence and racial hate throughout every corner of mississippi. He should also remind every citizen(white & black) that they are not above the law day or night, sober or drunk. Yet im sure that the Mayan end of the world prediction and the second coming of christ will happen long before the governor of miss chastise the many white parents of miss. who have teens full of racial hostility and rage while living in a well to do neighborhood and spoiled to the brim. The federal government should handle this as a hate crime case instead of the state due to the long history of corrupt nature that still exist in mississippi.
No kidding. Haley Barbour not too long ago defended the White Citizens Councils–mentioned in the section of the post about the murder of Medgar Evers.
I’m utterly appalled. Just speechless.
Yes, indeed. Why aren’t the other teens charged? At least with assault, battery, manslaughter. Good grief. What the heck is the matter with the DA?
a for a what these teens should get for murdering that man . i say bring back the chair and flip the switch
i agree with just about everything this girl in the vid says but apparently she things that flying the confederate flag makes you a racist & that just not true
More learned behavior — and the message to the haters??? Keep on hating.
Up here in the “north” the hatred is directed at Native Americans. Lots of bigots.
If there were a way to tax or fine the haters and then use that money in the schools to teach something other than hatred. . . . .
A Hawaiian group has a song which runs through my mind when I read stuff like thing — hating is carefully taught. Googled — Rogers and Hammerstein — South Pacific. A pidgin version is on one of my CDs.
Every individual involved in this monstrous crime should be required to attend some sort of anti-hatred training. We have a lot of anti-other hatred — class hatred.
I’ve been following this story since it broke — good on you BB for blogging about it.
That song is from the musical South Pacific
Thanks BB.
HONK!!!
It does seem strange that not all the teens in the truck were charged. The story is confusing to me.
Even if they were old enough, I am against the death penalty because it is usually applied to people of color or poor people. Here in Georgia, the Troy Davis case comes to mind. I’ve seen too many stories about ambiguous cases. I’m not trying to compare these cases; just offer my reason for being against the death penalty.
I’m also always curious how these kids learned to be the way they are – what’s their story? I’d venture to guess that neglect would be the first item on a long, long list.
Keep following this story and keep it before the readership. The pressure must be applied to the state of Mississippi to see to it that all of the perpetrators of this crime – not just Deryl Dedmon – are brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law. God bless you.