By: Kirsten West Savali, Your Black World
The family of James C. Anderson, the Black man “allegedly” ruthlessly killed by a group of young white supremacists in Jackson, MS, has filed a lawsuit against the teens in Hinds County Circuit Court.
Winston J. Thompson III, attorney for the family, claims that when the teens set out to “f@ck with some niggers,” Anderson, 49, just happened to be the first person who matched the accepted melanin description.
As previously reported by Your Black World, a surveillance video captured on June 26, shows Anderson was standing by his truck in the parking lot of the Metro Inn in Jackson, MS when he was spotted, targeted, and maliciously killed by Deryl Dedmon Jr., 19, and John Aaron Rice, 18. William Kirk Montgomery, Sarah Graves, Shelbie Richards, John Blaylock and Dylan Butler have not been charged, but they all allegedly played a role in the vicious beating Anderson withstood while screams of “White Power” assaulted his ears—and they are all named in the lawsuit filed by the family in cooperation with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Barbara Anderson Young, Anderson’s eldest sister released a statement expressing her desire for an honest examination of race relations:
“Anyone who knew James could see that he was a caring man with a beautiful smile. He was such a compassionate person. We must take an honest look at the racial climate that motivated some young people to hurt such a wonderful person.”
A vigil organized by the New Order National Human Rights Organization held on August 21 at the scene of Anderson’s murder, served as both a simultaneous call for peace and also of action.
Jone Maati Primm, an attendee at the rally made it clear that we are no longer living in the days of Jim and Jane Crow and that it is time to do whatever it takes to get that message to white supremacists across the state:
“We have to let all of Mississippi and especially Rankin County know that it is not open season on black people in Mississippi. That day is past and gone.”
