Joyce King with Gov. Rick Perry
Why Choose Rita?
Jasper, Texas forever changed Joyce King.
It was 1998. James Byrd, Jr. had been dragged to his death behind a pickup truck. A CBS-owned radio station dispatched King to cover the three trials in 1999. By the end of that year, and three capital murder convictions later, the veteran broadcaster abruptly resigned to write HATE CRIME: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas. The book was critically-acclaimed.
In the years since, King has given dozens of lectures and talked with thousands about the “arranged marriage” between black and white. Without the possibility of divorce, she not only sought a degree of healing and reconciliation for herself, but for the same region once shunned for an invisible exile of denied heirs.
A native Texan, King was raised in Louisiana, where many struggled to redefine the ‘New South’ and its racial hierarchy. Jasper inspired King to examine some of the very relationships she had filed away. The result was GROWING UP SOUTHERN: White Men I Met Along The Way, an ordinary story of little Negro girl’s evolution to woman of color in America.
King believed the book brought her full circle. Until a pair of hurricanes in 2005. After Katrina and Rita tore through her beloved home states, King found herself defending one and racing to the other. Then rightfully merging both.
For a third time, Jasper summoned King back to the Piney Woods and plenty of leftover Rita devastation in surrounding counties. Dual caregivers-survivors needed someone to listen and King needed to be needed. Texans and Louisianans paved the way for redemption of a region and its homegrown author.
Joyce King's "unintended trilogy” concludes with FORGOTTEN HURRICANE, a powerful post-storm memoir inspired by a phone call. From one conversation quickly morphs a talkfest. Neighbor chatting with neighbor. Stranger helping stranger. Working in the wake of lingering loss and heartache.
These are a few of the ordinary Americans King was invited to love, laugh with, cry with, and break bread with. They discovered common ground as hurricane survivors and in their sustained compassion for others. Exchange was therapeutic. And emotional.
A school bus driver trapped in a convoy traveling 50-hours nonstop retraced the Rita evacuation route with King. A man who dared her to meet with him spoke candidly of being “a recovering racist.” Passengers from the ill-fated marathon bus ride offered their perspectives on Rita. One of the most eligible bachelors in the country bumped into King before delivering a rousing speech on hurricanes. A sheriff who whispered into the ear of President Bush exclusively revealed to the author what they talked about. He and other first responders answered nonstop calls for help. As did an entire city that picked up the tab for 10,000 evacuees about to lose motel room-homes.
Written with honesty and humor, King’s winning combination strengthens her shared bond of “ordinariness personified.” How ordinary all their lives were. Before the storm. After the storm. Her eye for detail will instantly position us, particularly those who never heard of places like Cameron Parish, Louisiana, inside the eye of Rita’s political storm.
The demand that federal government pay what it owes must not be ignored or forgotten. As thousands believe they have been.
Joyce King on the front porch of Governor's Mansion
*** FROM USA Today March 2007 ***
(a column by Joyce King)
Dallas Prosecutor Puts Justice First
An unprecedented legal partnership will put the spotlight on Texas and the role that DNA testing plays in exonerating those who are wrongly convicted.
One partner, Craig Watkins, is not only making history as Texas’ first African American district attorney but also by unveiling a remarkable plan. He is granting outside reviews of all 354 inmates in his jurisdiction of Dallas County who claim that a DNA test could prove their innocence.
The second partner is the Innocence Project of Texas, composed of state law school volunteers who investigate cases in which inmates claim they were wrongly convicted. Under Watkins’ plan,
(Read this column and others by King at usatoday.com)
Joyce King in New Orleans at a home rebuilt after Katrina by Mackie Construction
An Unintended Trilogy
3rd Installment
2nd Installment
1st Book
Jasper County Sheriff-Emeritus Billy Rowles
JASPER REVISITED
June 7, 2008 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the dragging murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. I will return to Jasper, as I have every year since the crime, to visit friends, discuss hope, justice, and healing. On a weekly basis, someone writes to me or stops me on the street to ask my opinion on Jasper. My answer has remained the same and I will share it again when America looks back at Jasper in June 2008. Check here soon for more details.
2007 NEWS
THE INNOCENCE PROJECT OF TEXAS has approved me as its newest board member. I am humbled and honored to be a part of the noble mission to overturn wrongful convictions in the Lone Star state. But we need your help.
Please remember the work of freedom is not free. Give generously to the Innocence Project of Texas and visit our web site for more information. The JUSTICE DELAYED Fundraiser has partnership levels of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Associate. Join IPOT in the fight for justice!
Joyce King visiting Dallas D-A Craig Watkins
SMU Honors Department Lecturer
EXCERPT FROM: FORGOTTEN HURRICANE
CHAPTER ONE:
"Feeling helpless, I towed the line between guilty and safety, asking from my bed in Dallas, the only natural question available, "What can I do?" The pause between us had been long enough to see anxious faces, then decide with Angel on a national media strategy to shed light on Rita's unexpected and destructive inland detour. We had a few colleagues scattered around the country at various news agencies and immediately began calling them, just begging assignment editors to let America see people suffering in 108 degree heat, without food and water, without Central Air, without the ability to brush and flush, without generators and gas, without electricity, and without a confirmed hour that basic necessities might resemble something approaching normal.
Between us, Angel and I called Washington, New York, Atlanta, colleagues in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and beyond. In some cases, there was genuine sympathetic concern. In a few others, people in charge flatly stated Jasper "wasn't a story" or that it was "too far" to be newsworthy. Others, understandably, were consumed by the girl who wore, and is still wearing, the hurricane tiara. No one in Rita's aftermath begrudged Katy her golden crown, but Rita came barreling at them damned angry that she had been chosen first runner-up. They were, they are separate hurricanes forever bound by year, date, fate, and historical destiny. Many feared Rita would be shortchanged in the end."
"Joyce King once again captures the spirit, resolve and character
of Texans in her latest book, Forgotten Hurricane. She takes
readers back to the harrowing hours when Rita dealt her blow, and
then illustrates both the passion and compassion of our state as Southeast
Texans recovered from the wrath of the storm."
--Gov. Rick Perry
Meet Joyce King
Sat, Sept 22, 2007
12pm - 2pm
Dallas Black Academy of Arts & Letters in Downtown Dallas.