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| A Death in Texas: A Story of Race, Murder, and a Small Town's Struggle for Redemption
Paperback
Author: Dina Temple-Raston
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Release Date: 2003-01-10
ISBN-10: 0805072772
ISBN-13: 9780805072778
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
In the small town of Jasper, in the piney woods of deep East Texas, old slave relations still live below the surface along with an unwritten code of segregation. It was there that James Byrd was savagely dragged to death by three white men in a pickup. His death threatened to blow the town open. Dina Temple-Raston poignantly captures Jasper's desperate attempt to save its image as Jesse Jackson, the New Black Panthers, the KKK, and the media descended. In the process, she delves into such questions as, What does racism look like and where does it come from; follows the murderers to their final destination at Huntsville prison (ground zero for 40 percent of American executions); and shows how death forces people to see things the way they really are--and just how quickly they forget. A Death in Texas is a stunning and painful book that exposes racism in all its subtle and violent forms, and portrays the small heroes who try to change history.
Research And Copy Reading Aside....
| Customer Rating: | Having lived in the Jasper/Newton area during this time and knowing several of the "actors"(sheriff Rowles, Billy Ray Robinson, and Joe Sterling)I have long wanted to read this book and finally have taken the time to finish nearly 80% of it.
The book, to those outside the area, is an awesome read. For us "locals" it pretty well tells the tale but, as others have pointed out, there were so many geographical and historical errors that are evidence that the book was either rushed to print or no one bothered doing any fact checking.
As mentioned before the author has the 3 men headed on Highway 59 to Burkeville from Jasper when , in reality, it is state highway 63....also, when she states Bill King's girlfriend gave birth to his premature baby and it was in the intensive care unit at a Newton County Hospital....The only hospital in Newton County closed in the late 80s or early 90s and, even if it were open, they hadnt delivered babies for some years before that....as also mentioned Vidor was not named after King Vidor altho I guess that makes good copy to associate a KKK town with the director of the first all black movie production.
There were also obvious misprints such as Joe Sterling becoming Joe Sperling for a whole page of dialogue before reverting back to Sterling...as said it probably doesnt bother someone from other areas but to us, who live here and lived through this, it smacks of ineptitude from someone having the credentials of the author.
What the book did bring out was the awesome job Billy Rowles and others did keeping the peace. This was the summer the movie "A Time To Kill" came out on video and it mirrored a lot of what could have happened in Japser. I think it is to Sheriff Rowles credit that things never got out of hand and the people of Jasper and Jasper County should always remember his service.
Overall, other than the few obvious mistakes, the book is a good read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone |
Not the real story
| Customer Rating: | | I was disgusted by how this writer tried to make what was already horrid into something even worse by interviewing a few people and making what they said sound like it represented the entire town, county, and state. I'm a former newspaper editor and I was appalled by this book (and the other one, also). My mother was on the jury. |
"I'm sure it happens ,but you don't hear about it."
| Customer Rating: |
This is an excellent book and for a lot of reasons.I don't know if it won any awards or not ,but it is certainly good enough to become a lasting account of the racially inspired murder of James Byrd by dragging him on a chain behind a pick up truck.This happened in Jasper,Texas on June 7,1998.
Dina has done an marvelous job of explaining the deep seated prejudices and injustices that created an enviroment for this evil action to occur.She has researched and shown the inner feelings and culture of all the people in this small town .Yes, there are good people, evil people and everything in between.
She is a trained and experienced journalist and her skills are very evident throughout the book.She spent countless hours talking to many of the people of this town and she writes in a way that conveys their everyday and personal language.No doubt there are many other small towns in America as well as around the world where the hatred and injustice are just as bad.All one has to do is remember the three young men murdered and portrayed in "Mississippi Burning";and that is only one of many,many examples.Dina reminds me of those great authors that so well wrote about the South.Two that come to mind immediately are Erskine Caldwell and William Faulkner,and that is pretty fancy company to be in.Dina not only covers the characters involved but also describes what happened before and during the murder but also the charges,trials and convictions.On top of that she shows the effect these events had on the families involved,the legal and justice participants as well as the townspeople and others outside the community.
Just look at some of these greatlines,sayings,descriptions,and these are only a sample of the many found throughout the book
"If I owned Texas and hell,
I'd rent out Texas and live in hell"
-General P.H. Sherman
"Death has a way of making even slow people hurry."
"When the devil's loose,it doesn't matter who he catches."
"This country boy's in trouble."
"Hell yes,I shot him;I should have done it ten years ago."
"A place near nowhere."
"A town where people stopped just long enough to lick a postage
stamp."
"The closest jobs got further away."
"Ain't nothing we can do."
"If I'd have married one of their sisters,they would hang me
so high my feet wouldn't touch the ground."
"What's done in the dark comes to the light."
"No battles are ever won by spectators."
"Bill King was a series of sums that did not add up."
"He said mixed couples should hang from the same tree."
"Some people have crosses to bear,I have crosses to burn."
"In the South,the past isn't dead,it's not even past."
Man,talk about picturesque language.
I tried to see what has transpired with the three convicted murderers on the web sites mentioned in the book,but without much success.If anyone knows their status,it would be helpful to include in a review.
I can't imagine anyone doing a better book on this whole affair than what Dina Temple-Raston has given us. I'll be on the lookout for future books of hers.
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Shawn Berry
| Customer Rating: | | I've known Shawn Berry all of my life as he is best friends with my cousin. We all grew up together going to the rodeos and watching Shawn bull-ride and seeing him at my cousins' daughters christening as he became her God-Father, I can't begin to explain how so many people look down on him for what happened. I have personally talked to Shawn and got his recollection of what happened that night and it seems as though no authors of books or producers/screen-writers of movies have. Shawn is a great guy and always will be. His fiance was one of his attorneys and she still stands by him that he will one day get to see their daughter grow up outside of the bars that he lives behind everyday. I just wanted everyone to know that Shawn did do wrong that night but not in the way everyone thinks. He literally DID have a gun to his head and was told he could die to. No one can say what they would have done in that situation. NO ONE. The Byrd family has visited Shawn in prison and he got down on his knees and begged forgiveness and they gave it to him. Shawn always gave James a ride home and was friends with him and his family. There are things about James Byrd that no one knows but I will not talk bad of the deceased. I just wanted people to know that things aren't always as they seem. Jasper is a small town and always will be in the backs of peoples minds in the US now but it's not as bad as Vidor. |
Hate devours the Soul
| Customer Rating: | | This should be read by all Americans. Racial hatred needs to be erased from our minds so it doesn't do to us what it did to these men. The book is ok - it would have been better had it not repeated itself over and over. I felt like I read the same book five times. Could have been much shorter. |
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