James Byrd Jr. was a father of three children who lived in Jasper, Texas, working as a vacuum salesman. On the evening of June 7th, 1998, he accepted a ride home from one of the three would-be murderers he happened to know from around town. But instead, they took him to a remote area to torture and eventually kill him. One of Byrd Jr.'s cousins also happened to be the first wife of Rodney King, another Black man at the center of a flashpoint moment of racial tension.