Texas family honors Jasper man dragged to death 20 years ago

JASPER, Texas (AP) - Relatives have dedicated a bench to honor a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death in East Texas 20 years ago.

James Byrd Jr. was 49 on June 7, 1998, when he was killed by three white men in Jasper, Texas.

The Beaumont Enterprise reports that Byrd's family gathered at the Jasper County Courthouse to memorialize him with the bench, then spent the day in a park named after him.

Byrd's daughter, Renee Byrd Mullins, says she hopes to remind the community that "hate is a learned response."

The bench outside the courthouse where two of the men were convicted in Byrd's killing is engraved with the words, "Be the change you want to see in the world."