New Details Emerge In Mississippi Hit And Run Killing

More developments in the vicious murder of James Craig Anderson, the black Mississippi man who was beaten and killed in a hit and run by a white teenager that was allegedly racially motivated. Nineteen-year-old Deryl Dedmon Jr., believed to be the ringleader of the attack, has been charged with capital murder, an upgrade from the original murder charge. Dedmon is currently being held in isolation at Hinds County Detention Center.

Personal details have also been revealed about Anderson. The New York Times states Anderson had a partner and they were raising a daughter together.

"Mr. Anderson was a good country cook, a gifted gardener and always genial, his family said. He liked his job on the assembly line at the Nissan plant north of Jackson, where he had worked for about seven years.



“If you met him, the first thing you were going to see was that grand piano smile,” said his eldest sister, Barbara Anderson Young.


He made a point of taking care of old people and children and was helping his partner of 17 years, James Bradfield, raise the 4-year-old relative for whom Mr. Bradfield has legal guardianship. He sang tenor in the choir at the First Hyde Park Missionary Baptist Church and was so good “he’d have you falling out,” Mr. Bradfield, 44, said.


And if friends or relatives were not dressed well enough for an event, he would tease them into changing into something nicer."

Dedmon also has a history of making racist and homophobic comments. Rev. Brian Richardson of Castlewood Baptish Church says Dedmon "had called his son, Jordan, 18, derogatory words for homosexual and mocked his friendship with black students when they were in high school together. Mr. Richardson said he had raised the issue with school officials, and once had to deal with the police when Mr. Dedmon and some other boys drove to the family home."

Anderson's family, while starting the James Craig Anderson Foundation for Racial Tolerance, has chosen to remain silent. I have to echo Rod 2.0's sentiments about the reason why they may be reluctant to speak out: "If these facts were known, would the horrific murder still have captured the nation's attention?"


I think we all know what facts Rod's is talking about.