BY MEG NOVAK
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Nearly 30 people attended a
speakout here June 26, against the racist murder of James
Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas. The crowd included workers,
union activists, leaders of civil rights groups, antiracist
youth, and others. The event was sponsored by the Militant
Labor Forum.
"This is almost the year 2000, and the same kind of violence is happening today as happened in the 1940s, '50s and '60s," stated Norman Stover, who opened the panel of speakers. Stover is the vice-chair of the Northern Alabama Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 725.
Taji Brown, the president of the NAACP chapter at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, said that while doing research for his presentation, he had come across reports of two other racist dragging incidents in Texas since Byrd's death.
"It's a right of individuals to have their freedom and walk where they want to walk," Brown stated. He compared the lynching style death of Byrd to "a symbolic death of all the Black Americans who have died in the past. He symbolized what we thought was over."
Also speaking were Rev. Henry Sterling, the coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in Alabama; John Zippert, editor of the Greene County Democrat and co-chair of the Black Belt Defense Committee; and Kristin Meriam, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for governor of Alabama.
Zippert opened his remarks by saying, "This is part of the violence that goes on in the system every day. Hundreds and hundreds of children in Alabama are subject to another form of violence. What about the foreclosure of small farms, or the burning of Black churches?"
Zippert explained the fight that is currently going on in Greene County, Alabama, to defend 12 voting rights activists who have been targeted by state and federal officials in an effort to intimidate Black voters.
"This act is an outrage, a deplorable and horrible act," stated Meriam, who is a member of the United Steelworkers of America. Meriam pointed to the upturn in strikes and other fights by working people as evidence of the possibility to mobilize opposition to the assault in Jasper.
"Who can stop racist attacks?" She continued. "The workers and students who are standing up to defend affirmative action, to defend bilingual education, protest police brutality, and fight for independence for Puerto Rico all help set a tone that racist murder will not be tolerated.... These people, the fighting workers, farmers and young people, are capable of creating a better society in the new century."
Several of the panelists referred to the act as a "hate crime." One participant in the discussion period stated, "We have to be careful with the use of the term `hate crime.' I think it can be more accurately called racist terror. They didn't call it a hate crime when the cops beat up Rodney King, or when they execute a disproportionate number of Black workers."
Many workers at plants and mills where Militant supporters were building the protest made a point of saying how pleased they were that a speakout had been called, and actively encouraged participation themselves. One steelworker at Medowcraft, a patio furniture plant, put up a flyer in his welding booth to help build the event.
KISS FM radio, the main Black-oriented radio station in Birmingham, played announcements for the speakout for several days leading up to the protest, and covered the event that night. In addition, the local Birmingham affiliates of the FOX, CBS, and NBC national television networks reported on the meeting.