Nearly a decade and a half after the passing of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, it only feels like racist and homophobic violence in America has spiked since 2009. While the legitimizing of power of a certain ex-President feels like the obvious instigator here, the Anti-Defamation League reported that 2022 marked the highest number of recorded “white supremacist propaganda incidents” in our nation’s history, as hate crimes increased 38 percent from the previous year.
Such is the situation addressed on the new solo single from Kam Franklin of The Suffers, who’s following up the Texas soul-funk group’s 2022 LP It Starts with Love with a characteristically empathetic standalone track dedicated to James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard, for whom the aforementioned Hate Crimes Prevention Act was named. Pairing her familiar powerhouse vocals with an Americana twang and disco-inspired percussion and bass, “Byrd and Shepard” honors the titular victims by bluntly acknowledging the lack of progress—if not downright regression—our elected officials have made in amending our legal code to prevent this sort of tragedy.
“James Byrd Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas, on June 7,1998,” Franklin explains. “He was killed by white supremacists for being Black. Four months later, Matthew Shepard was killed in Laramie, Montana for being gay. Byrd Jr. was murdered on my eleventh birthday, and the stories of both men and their brutal murders have stayed with me ever since. I wrote this song to share their stories with a new generation, because we’re currently living in a time where Black and queer history are under attack.”
Franklin adds, “Nina Simone said that an artist’s duty is to reflect the times. Consider ‘Byrd and Shepard’ as me doing my part as an artist in 2023. It’s been 14 years since The Matthew Shepard And James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 2009 was signed into law. Do you think America is moving in the right direction? The eradication of hate starts with love, conversation, education, and the sharing of the truth.”
Hear the track below. Proceeds will be donated to The Byrd Foundation for Racial Healing and The Matthew Shepard Foundation.
