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Jasper Texas

TV Movie
Drama, Mystery • 2002
h
In June 1998, a shocking crime thrust the small town of Jasper, Texas into the glare of the media spotlight. The tragedy of one man’s life would outrage the world and became a flashpoint for the damaged state of race relations in America.

Format

TV Movie

Genre

Drama, Mystery

Original Air Date

2002

Studio

Showtime

Starring

  • Jon Voight
  • Louis Gossett Jr.
  • Joe Morton
  • Emily Yancy
  • Bokeem Woodbine
  • Blu Mankuma
  • Roy T. Anderson
On a warm summer night in Texas, 49-year-old James Byrd, Jr. (Roy T. Anderson, They Call Me Sirr), an unsuspecting black hitchhiker, caught a ride with three young white men. After sharing beer and cigarettes in a secluded area outside of town, the trio suddenly descended upon Byrd, chained him to a pickup truck by his ankles, dragged him for more than two miles, and left his ravaged corpse on the side of the road. Overwhelmed by this savage hate crime, longtime state-trooper-turned-sheriff Billy Rowles (Oscar and Golden Globe winner Jon Voight, Ali), R.C. Horn (Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy winner Louis Gossett, Jr., An Officer and a Gentleman), the town’s first black mayor, and political activist Walter Diggles (Joe Morton, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) join forces to unite their stunned community while they fought to bring Byrd’s killers to justice.