Jorge Rivas of ColorLines is reporting that Mississippi hate crime victim James Craig Anderson was remembered on Sunday during a march in Jackson, Miss. More than 500 people marched to call attention to the murder of the 49-year-old in what authorities say was a racially motivated hate crime.
Starting at a nearby church, the march included clergymen, elected officials and supporters of all races who sang "We Shall Overcome" as they marched to the site of Anderson's murder, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says that seven teenagers left a party together with the intention of finding a black victim to assault. Anderson was the first black man the group saw upon exiting the highway, and they began to attack him in a motel parking lot. In the end, Deryl Dedmon, 18, allegedly ran over Anderson and is being charged with murder.
"This was a crime of hate," Smith told CNN last week. "Dedmon murdered this man because he was black."
The incident happened on June 26, but it didn't make national headlines until last week, when CNN acquired footage of the incident from motel security cameras that were in the parking lot.
The senseless murder of a man just because he was black is heartbreaking. We're glad CNN released the video so that people could witness the extent of the hatred that Dedmon and his "friends" have in their hearts. Sadly, it is Anderson's murder that reminds us of the work that has to be done to bring people together, not tear them apart.
Read more at ColorLines.
In other news: Mega-Church Pastor Tims Found Dead in NYC Hotel.