Tried it in a Small Town: A Condensed History of the Expansion of Hate Crime Legislation
July 2023 sure was an awkward time to be a black country music fan. On one hand, you had black artists like Willie Jones, Breland, and Lathan Warlick, challenging the boundaries of country music’s past, releasing some very good records. On the other hand, you had Jason Aldean.
Aldean is a singer who has previously worn black face and repeatedly performed in shirts adorned with the confederate flag. Given that history it should’ve come as no surprise that he decided to shoot the video for his song “Try That in a Small Town” in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee where a black, 18-year-old man named Henry Choate was lynched in 1927. The courthouse was also saw the Columbia race riot in 1946. While Aldean performed, videos of riots were superimposed on the building behind him. With videos meant to invoke thoughts of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and beyond, and a backdrop known for the lynching of black people, it didn’t take people long to fill in the dots on the exact message we were meant to get from the whole production. While Aldean couldn’t necessarily sing “and we’ll hang any nigger that steps out of line” on a record in 2023, he didn’t have to as the visuals amplified what could not be spoken.
Of course, this debacle divided social media. On hand, you had the people (from all races) pointing out the racist intricacies of the production. On the other, you had people supporting the song, who were either (a) not smart enough to understand the racist nuances of the song and video or (b) were smart enough to understand them but just didn’t care because they agreed.
Amongst the numerous post and think pieces, one stood out to me. My friend Lauren posted a picture of a fresh-faced, young, white man. He had short hair that swooped over his face. He looked college aged, no more than 19 or 20. Below the picture the caption read:
“When you think of ‘Try that in a Small Town’ remember Matthew Shepard and how that small town treated him. That’s enough reason to resent the song and singer.”
Admittedly, I had no clue who Matthew Shepard was. After a quick Google search, I learned why his story was relevant to this whole situation. And in the process of researching Matthew Shepard, I also learned the equally revolting story of James Byrd, Jr., another historic tale relevant to modern issues. While Jason Aldean may have rose to the top of the charts by romanticizing small country towns, gay folk and folk of color, recall the reality of being harassed, assaulted, and meeting their demise due to intolerance found in the type of towns Aldean crooned about.
These are two of those stories.
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Jasper, Texas is the epitome of a small town. The 2020 Census logged Jasper’s population as 6,884 citizens which is a decrease from the 7,590 people measured the decade prior. Jasper is known for its mild winters, low cost of life, and its annual butterfly festival on the first Friday of October. It was also home to James Byrd, Jr.
James was born the son of a Sunday school teacher and a church deacon in 1949 in Beaumont, Texas. He was an accomplished musician, playing the piano, trumpet, and singing in his church’s choir. After a divorce in 1993, James was determined to get his life back on track and in 1996, moved back to the town he had been raised in, Jasper.
In Jasper, James was very well liked. Due to a disability, James would collect disability support checks and would also mow lawns around town for extra cash. James couldn’t afford a car, but it didn’t really matter much as Jasper is a small enough town where everything was within walking distance. It wasn’t uncommon to see him walking about town, humming, or whistling a tune. It also wasn’t uncommon for other members of the community to offer him a ride.
That’s what happened on June 7th, 1998.
James was walking home when Shawn Berry, who knew James from around town, offered him a ride. James accepted and hopped in the bed of Shawn’s pick-up truck. Also, in the truck was John William King, a local member of the Confederate Knights of America who sported numerous racist tattoos including an image of a black man hanging from a tree. Also in the truck was Lawrence Brewer, a fellow Knight who had met John in prison.
Instead of taking James home, the trio took him to a deserted road out of town. James was pulled from the truck bed and savagely beaten by John and Lawrence. At some point, James had his face spraypainted. As he lay in the dirt, beaten and bloody, John and Lawrence proceeded to urinate and defecate on James.
But the worst was still yet to come.
Lawrence and John chained James by his ankles to the truck. Shawn then proceeded to drive, dragging James for approximately three miles. James would suffer multiple broken ribs as well as his knees, feet, buttocks and left check being worn down. He would lose several toes and fracture others. The muscles on his legs would be exposed and both testicles were ripped from his scrotum. James would be alive as these injuries happened. At some point, James’ body would hit a culvert in the road, separating his right arm and head from his body, killing him. The trio would unchain what was left of James’ body, leaving the corpse in front of the town’s black cemetery before heading off to a barbeque.
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Laramie is a Wyoming city that is about 17 square miles and home to approximately 33,000 residents. Comedian and actor Tommy Davidson calls Laramie home. And although he was born in Casper, Wyoming, Matthew Shepard will forever be linked to the town as well.
Matthew was born in 1976 and during his sophomore year in high school, Matthew moved with his parents to Saudi Arabia for his dad’s work where he would attend school in Switzerland.
In 1995, Matthew would also come out as gay after graduation revealing his sexual orientation to his mother who lovingly reassured him that she had known for years. Eventually, he would find his way to the town of Laramie, where in 1998, he’d enroll at his parent’s alma mater, the University of Wyoming to study political science.
On October 6th, 1998, Matthew went to a local bar after a meeting of his college LGBT club. As the night wore on, Matthew’s friends left one by one until only Matthew was left. That’s when he met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson.
After having a few beers, the pair approached Matthew and pretending to be gay, began chatting him up. Under the guise of dropping Matthew off at home, the three left the bar together in the truck Aaron was driving. Once the truck went past the turn that led to his house, Matthew realized the danger he was truly in.
Aaron began barraging Matthew in the back seat, first with verbal slurs, and then with fists. Once the trio arrived at a desolate spot in an abandoned field, Matthew was dragged from the truck, robbed of his wallet, shoes and keys, and abused further. Reports say he was pistol whipped with Aaron’s .357 Magnum in the head over 18 times. Aaron and Russell also physically assaulted Matthew’s genitals. Matthew begged the two for his life, but it was to no avail. Aaron and Russell tied Matthew to a fence and continued to beat the defenseless and barely conscious young man. Finally, the Aaron and Russell got back in the truck, leaving Matthew tied to the fence to die.
18 hours later, freshman Aaron Kreifels was out biking when he saw what he thought to be a scarecrow. Upon further investigation, he had discovered Matthew; still tied to that fence, covered in blood, and barely alive. Matthew was taken to the hospital in a coma that he would never recover from. He would die five days after the attack.
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The death of James Byrd Jr. pushed Jasper into the national spotlight. A great deal of the country viewed the town as a “potbellied, snuff-dipping, beer-drinking, redneck, bigoted” hotbed for racist attacks like the one that claimed James’ life. Some viewed the town as a victim itself; a normally calm town that had unsolicited evil deposited at its front door.
While Matthew’s attack and eventual death brought grief from around the nation, some couldn’t help but to use this as a time to express their anti-gay sentiments. As Matthews parents kept watch over their son, a few blocks away a Colorado State University homecoming parade passed by. The parade featured a Wizard of Oz themed float sponsored by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Alpha Chi Omega sorority. On the float, the scarecrow character had the words “I’m Gay” spraypainted on its back along with other gay slurs. At Matthew’s funeral on October 16th in the family’s hometown, known hate group, the Westboro Baptist Church, showed up to picket his service. Reverend Phelps and his followers showed up with picket signs barring homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that Matthew was burning in hell.
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Russell escaped the death penalty in return for turning on his co-murderer, Aaron. He was sentenced to two life sentences in spring of 1999. That fall, Aaron attempted to convince a jury to believe that he had been driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advance by Matthew. He also wanted the jury to believe that Matthew was simply the victim of a robbery gone wrong, and not the target of a hate crime. He was also able to escape the death penalty, only due to incredible mercy shown on him by Matthew’s parents.
Lawrence met the needle on September 21, 2011. Nearly eight years later, John met the same fate. With Shawn, the prosecution determined that he was not a white supremacist. He was the only one that showed any remorse for his actions. Despite this, the prosecution noted that he was still responsible for the crime. He was spared death, instead serving a life sentence.
Justice was served to these five men. However, both murders exposed holes in hate crime legislation. At the time, the state of Texas had no hate crime laws. While Wyoming did have hate crime laws, those laws did not extend to crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation. This mirrored the then Federal law.
Passed in 1968, Title I of the Civil Rights Act addressed hate-based crimes, “permitting federal prosecution of anyone who willingly injures, intimidates or interferes with another person, or attempts to do so, by force because of the other person’s race, color, religion or national origin because of the victim’s attempt to engage in one of six types of federally protected activities, such as attending school, patronizing a public place/facility, applying for employment, acting as a juror in a state court or voting.” Matthew and James’ murders shined a spotlight on parts of the Act that needed to be expanded and intensified the call to do so.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was first introduced to congress in 2001. The bill set out to do several things. First, the bill would finally address crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Also, the bill would remove the prerequisite from the 1968 act, that the crime had to be committed while the victim was attempting to engage in a federally protected activity. The bill would give federal authorities more power to investigate hate crimes that local authorities chose not to pursue, require the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes based on gender and gender identity, and would provide $5 million dollars per year from 2010 to 2012 to assist local agencies in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.
Of course, as with most policies designed to increase nationwide equity, there was conservative opposition. Evangelical Christian author and founder of the Focus on Family organization James Dobson, labeled the proposed act as “utter evil.” Essentially, Dobson argued that the act would put those who chose to practice opposition to homosexuality in danger as they may be tired to criminal acts against gay people. On a May 2009 episode of Dobson’s own radio show, he said:
“According to Congressmen Louie Gohmert, if a religious leader teaches “that homosexuality is wrong, and someone goes out and commits a crime of violence then the religious leader can be arrested for inducing that person to do it and under existing federal law you are as guilty as the one who committed the act of violence. So much for the First Amendment. The broad definition of sexual orientation could mean anything including the 30 forms of sexual deviancy that are listed by the American Psychiatric Association.”
South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint argued that the bill violated the 14th Amendment. He stated:
“I’m sure most parents of a minority, homosexual, or female victim would appreciate the extra concern. But the other side of this coin is the implication that these crimes committed against a ‘non-special’ person should have less punishment. And where does that leave the vast majority of victims’ families, who because of the whims of political correctness are not entitled under this legislation to special status and attention? How can a victim’s perceived status or the perpetrator’s perceived opinions possibly determine the severity of the crime? The 14th Amendment explicitly guarantees all citizens ‘equal protection of the laws.’ These hate crimes provisions create a special class of victims whose ‘protection of the law’ will be, in Orwell’s phrase, ‘more equal than others.’ And if some are more equal, others must be ‘less equal.’ It is then inevitable that this Hate Crimes provision will create the very problem it purports to solve.”
After several years of political wrangling, the bill was finally passed on July 15, 2009, with President Barack Obama signing it into law that October. Two years later, the Shephard/Byrd Act would be put to use.
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Founded in 1908 on top of a graveyard, Alpena is a town that is a part of both Boone and Carroll counties in Arkansas with a population of less than 400 people. On June 20, 2010, Frankie Maybee and Sean Popejoy pulled into the local Red-X gas station. Once there, the two encountered five Hispanic men. Frankie and Sean didn’t know the men, nor did the men even acknowledge the two. Unprovoked however, Frankie and Sean began hurling racial slurs at the men, going as far to tell them to “go back to Mexico.” The five men proceeded to leave the gas station, but Sean and Frankie hopped in their truck and chased them with Sean hanging out the passenger side window, wielding a tire wrench. Meanwhile Frankie rammed the men’s car, eventually sending it off the road and into a tree. The car caught fire. None of the men were killed, but they all were badly injured.
In May of 2011, Sean and Frankie were the first people convicted under the Shephard/Byrd Act. Frankie was convicted of five counts of committing a federal hate crime and one count of conspiring to commit a federal hate crime, resulting in 135 months in prison. Sean would plead guilty to one count of committing a federal hate crime and one count of conspiring to commit a federal hate crime, landing him 48 months in prison. Of the convictions and sentences, Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division would say:
“The facts of this case shock the conscience. Five men were almost killed for no reason other than the fact that they are Hispanic. The Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act allowed us to bring these men to justice in a way that we could not have done just a few years ago. These sentences send a clear message that the Justice Department will aggressively prosecute those who perpetrate violent acts of hate.”
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As this essay was being written, a 28-year-old gay, black man named O’Shae Sibley stopped by a Brooklyn gas station. O’Shae, who was a professional dancer, had spent the day on the beach with his friends and the group was in high spirits as they vogued to the new Beyonce album. Voguing is a form of expressive dance that has long been synonymous with the LGBTQ+ community. Voguing is also what irritated 17-year-old Dmitriy Popov as he approached O’Shae and his group, hurling anti-gay slurs and demanding that they stop the dancing. The altercation would ultimately lead to O’Shae being stabbed to death by the high school student. With violence still being directed at marginalized communities (due to the communities being marginalized in the first place), the laws that track all the way back to Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr’s “experiences” in a small town remain relevant to this day.
