[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 69 (Wednesday, June 7, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING JAMES BYRD JUNIOR

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 7, 2000

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, today I express my grief and 
shame that after 2 years from the date of James Byrd Junior's vicious 
murder on a paved road in Jasper County, TX, that the Bipartisan Hate 
Crimes Prevention Act of 1999 has not become law.
  Only recently have men been indicted to face trial in the nearly 40-
year-old murders of three African-American children who were killed one 
Sunday morning by a bomb while they participated in services at the 
16th Street Baptist Church. This terrible act galvanized the civil 
rights movement and began a shout for justice, which may at last be 
answered in a court of law as two Ku Klux Klansmen in Alabama's 
Jefferson County are finally being brought to justice for the 1963 
bombing.
  As the years passed from the time of the bombing, it was felt that 
America had made great strides until the night of June 7, 1998 when 
this Nation's deepest sin was revealed by the murder of James Byrd Jr.
  There is no case, which more graphically reminds this Nation that the 
submerged intolerance caused by racism that the steeps throughout the 
fabric of our society can erupt into gangrenous crimes of hate violence 
like the murder of James Byrd in Jasper, TX.
  We mark the second anniversary of his killing today with 1-minute 
speeches so that we can impress upon our fellow Members of the House 
the importance of passing strengthened hate crimes legislation.
  The lynching of James Byrd struck at the consciousness of our Nation, 
but we have let complacency take the place of unity in the face of 
unspeakable evil. It was difficult to imagine how in this day and age 
that two white supremacists beat Byrd senseless, chained him by the 
ankles to a pickup truck and then dragged him to his death over 3 miles 
of country back roads.
  I regret to inform this body that the Chief Executive of Texas did 
not attend Mr. Byrd's funeral and was active in opposing the passage of 
stronger hate crime legislation for the State of Texas. This level of 
passivity on the part of leadership in response to this terrible crime 
has left this Nation without the critical leadership it needs to face 
the truth regarding hate crime in American society.
  Since James Byrd Jr's death our Nation has experienced an alarming 
increase in hate violence directed at men, women and even children of 
all races, creeds and colors.
  Ronald Taylor traveled to the eastside of Pittsburgh, in what has 
been characterized, as an act of hate violence to kill three and wound 
two in a fast food restaurant. Eight weeks later, in Pittsburgh, 
Richard Baumhammers, armed with a .357-caliber pistol, traveled 20 
miles across the west side of Pittsburgh which now leaves him charged 
with killing five. His shooting victims included a Jewish woman, an 
Indian, ``Vietnamese,'' Chinese, and several black men.
  The decade of the 1990's saw an unprecedented rise in the number of 
hate groups preaching violence and intolerance, with more than 50,000 
hate crimes reported during the years 1991 through 1997. The summer of 
1999 was dubbed ``The Summer of Hate'' as each month brought forth 
another appalling incident, commencing with a 3-day shooting spree 
aimed at minorities in the Midwest and culminating with an attack on 
mere children in California. From 1995 through 1999, there has been 206 
different arson or bomb attacks on churches and synagogues throughout 
the United States--an average of one house of worship attacked every 
week.
  Like the rest of the nation, some in Congress have been tempted to 
dismiss these atrocities as the anomalous acts of lunatics, but news 
accounts of this homicidal fringe are merely the tip of the iceberg. 
The beliefs they act on are held by a far larger, though less visible, 
segment of our society. These atrocities, like the wave of church 
burnings across the South, illustrate the need for continued vigilance 
and the passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
  This legislation will make it easier for Federal authorities to 
assist in the prosecution of racial, religious and ethnic violence, in 
the same way that the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 helped 
Federal prosecutors combat church arson: By loosening the unduly rigid 
jurisdictional requirements under federal law. Current law (18 U.S.C.A. 
245) only covers a situation where the victim is engaging in certain 
specified federally protected activities. The legislation will also 
help plug loopholes in State criminal law, as 10 States have no hate 
crime laws on the books, and another 21 States fail to specify sexual 
orientation as a category for protection. This legislation currently 
has 191 cosponsors, but has had no legislative activity in this House.
  It is long past time that Congress passed a comprehensive law banning 
such atrocities. It is a Federal crime to hijack an automobile or to 
possess cocaine, and it ought to be a Federal crime to drag a man to 
death because of his race or to hang a person because of his or her 
sexual orientation. These are crimes that shock and shame our national 
conscience and they should be subject to Federal law enforcement 
assistance and prosecution.
  Therefore, I would urge fellow members of the United States House of 
Representatives to be counted among those who will stand for justice in 
this country for all Americans and nothing else.

                          ____________________