For much of the twentieth century, Mississippi was a place where racial violence was not merely ignored but actively erased. Witnesses stayed silent. Juries looked away. It was just a different time, they say.

James Craig Anderson’s murder did not happen in 1955. It happened in 2011.

This time, the cameras were watching. This time, the federal government stepped in. This time, the perpetrators pleaded guilty. Progress would be measured not in apologies or promises, but in prison sentences.

And unlike so many before him, Anderson’s killers were not celebrated, excused, or folded gently into historical amnesia. They were named. They were tried. They were sentenced. Dragged into the light, they could not escape what they had done.

Join Cam and Jen on this episode of Our True Crime Podcast entitled ‘Targeted: The Killing of James Craig Anderson.’

Listener Discretion by @octoberpodVHS

Music by @theinkypawprint

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRcYtzZS5kE

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/us/23jackson.html?hp

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/james-craig-anderson-fbi-investigation_n_930155.html

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2014/07/17/hate-crime-indictment-tells-details-five-attacks-one-fatal/12793527/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-of-alleged-miss-hate-killing-victim-doesnt-want-death-penalty/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/james-craig-anderson-fbi-investigation_n_930155.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8dRJ3SNh0

https://www.law.virginia.edu/static/uvalawyer/html/alumni/uvalawyer/spr15/reeves.htm

https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/ten-sentenced-in-hate-crime-case

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/01/four-white-men-ordered-to-pay-840000-for-jim-crow-style-lynching-of-mississippi-black-man/

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/02/12/385777366/a-black-mississippi-judges-breathtaking-speech-to-three-white-murderers

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/10/james-craig-anderson-case/25563641/

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/02/10/deryl-dedmon-two-others-to-be-sentenced-in-hate-crime-tuesday/23166397/

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/restitution-ordered-jackson-mississippi-hate-crime-case-involving-death-james-craig-anderson

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345. Targeted: The Killing of James Craig Anderson