Read the rest of the article to see a view of the racial tensions and attitudes in Jasper TX.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/u...tensions-flare-again.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Segregated Cemetery in Jasper, TX
âJASPER, Tex. â For more than 100 years, a rickety iron fence separated the black graves from the white ones at a cemetery in this East Texas town. Months after the brutal murder here of James Byrd Jr., a black man chained to a pickup truck and dragged to death by three white men on June 7, 1998, the fence was torn down by residents as a sign of unity and reconciliation.
Fourteen years later, Jasper City Cemetery remains segregated: blacks, including Mr. Byrd, are buried near the bottom of the hill, while whites are buried at the top.
âItâs our custom, here in the South, here in Jasper,â said Albert K. Snell, 80, a retired teacher who is white and a member of the cemeteryâs board of directors. âWe have the same cemetery, but we donât mix the white and the black graves. Theyâre separate. Put a black up here? No, no, we wouldnât do that. That would be against our custom, against our way of doing things.â
In recent months, the perpetual, uncomfortable truce between the races in this piney woods town of 7,600 has ruptured, and the feuding has become increasingly public.â