Speakers Stress Racial Healing At Service for Dragging Victim
Speakers Stress Racial Healing At Service for Dragging Victim
By DAVID FIRESTONE
Speaker after speaker at Mr. Byrd's funeral said his death last Sunday --
which the authorities say came at the hands of three white men who beat him
and dragged him in chains from a moving pickup truck, dismembering his body
-- should bring whites and blacks together in outrage and determination to
end racial violence.
Mr. Jackson said that Mr. Byrd had entered the pantheon of the nation's
racial martyrs and victims, and he proposed that the town of Jasper erect a
monument in his memory as a tangible protest against hate crimes.
Several of the politicians and national black leaders who spoke
acknowledged that Mr. Byrd's family was uncomfortable with the idea of
turning him into a national symbol, and would have preferred to have had a
quieter service without the political rallying cries. But they said the need
to invest this death with meaning was too great.
''We know, Clara, that you wanted to be left alone,'' said Transportation
Secretary Rodney Slater, referring to one of Mr. Byrd's sisters, Clara
Taylor. ''But we can't. We have to be with you. We have to be with this
family and we have to be here in Jasper. Because we can ill afford to have
what has happened here happen any place else across this land.''
The Byrd family had already given up its hope for a truly private
funeral, although it did ban reporters and photographers from Greater New
Bethel Baptist Church, where Mr. Byrd's father is a deacon and his mother a
Sunday school teacher. Only 200 people could fit in the sanctuary, leaving
600 others to listen to a public-address system outside.
Most of the speakers -- including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas
Republican, and Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat who
serves as chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus -- had never met Mr.
Byrd, an unemployed 49-year-old man whose ambles about this town of 8,000
made him a familiar figure to many of its black residents. Neither had many
of the black mourners who came from around Texas, or the presidents of
regional N.A.A.C.P. chapters, or advocates like the Rev. Al Sharpton from
New York.
But the random brutality of Mr. Byrd's death seemed to strike both fear
and a sense of responsibility in many black leaders, several of whom said
any member of the community could have been similarly violated.
One of the few speakers who knew Mr. Byrd well was the pastor of the
church, the Rev. Kenneth O. Lyons, who grew up across the street from the
Byrd family in east Jasper. Alone among those who spoke, he declined to make
his old neighbor into an explicit symbol, instead preaching an old-fashioned
eulogy in answer to a question Mr. Byrd asked him long ago about the message
of his church.
''We need to talk Jesus,'' Mr. Lyons said, to rousing responses from the
audience inside and out. ''We tried everything else, so brothers and
sisters, we need to try Jesus.'' He made only an indirect reference to the
violence of the crime when he reminded his listeners that Herod had beheaded
John the Baptist.
There were several white residents at the funeral, and throughout the
day, many townspeople wore yellow ribbons and kept their car headlights on.
Flags in Jasper, which is about 30 percent black, flew at half staff at
several shopping strips. But later in the day there was a reminder that not
everyone was viewing Mr. Byrd's death with the resolute serenity asked for
in the church.
About 15 black men dressed in paramilitary uniforms and carrying rifles
and shotguns marched from the sheriff's office into Mr. Byrd's neighborhood,
urging black residents to arm themselves.The group of gang members,
followers of the Nation of Islam and members of an organization calling
itself the New Black Panthers, was led by Khallid Muhammad of New York, a
former aide to Minister Louis Farrakhan. They drew little attention from Mr.
Byrd's neighbors, who preferred to remember a gentle friend in the way his
family most desired.
''Dr. King would say that unearned suffering is redemptive, that
there's power in the blood of the innocent,'' said the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
who has been at the side of the Byrd family for most of the week. ''Brother
Byrd's innocent blood alone could very well be the blood that changes the
course of our country, because no one has captured the nation's attention
like this tragedy.''
Organizations mentioned in this article:
Related Terms:
You may print this article now, or save it on your computer for future reference. Instructions for saving this article on your computer are also available.
Page Top