Texas NAACP president, attorney Gary Bledsoe
Alfred Wright’s death does not surprise the head of the Texas NAACP, attorney Gary Bledsoe. Bledsoe stated in a previous exclusive interview with rolling out that there have been numerous suspicious deaths over the past few years. During the Clinton administration, Bledsoe presented evidence to Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster. Foster promised he would look over the material and advise the President of the situation in Jasper, Texas. The information never reached the president because Foster committed suicide. An unrelated chain of events led to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the deaths of black citizens in Texas did not rate the president’s attention at that time.
Bledsoe went on to state that racial tensions have been elevated since the recent execution of white supremacist John King for the murder of James Byrd. James Byrd, a black man and father, was walking home one night and offered a ride. King and his two friends did not take Byrd home; instead he was beaten and chained to the back of a pickup truck. He was then dragged behind the truck for three miles until his head was torn off and his body was shredded. King and his associates then dumped the remains in front of a black cemetery. Later King wrote about his crime, “Regardless of the outcome of this, we have made history. Death before dishonor. Sieg Heil!” and “given a choice he’d do it all over again.”
This crime helped lead to the passage of a federal hate crime bill that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2009. According to King’s own statements he was trying to start a race war in Jasper, Texas, that would spread.
The U.S. Department of Justice is now in charge of the Alfred Wright investigation at the behest of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Rep. Lee was approached by the head of the Texas chapter of the NAACP, attorney Gary Bledsoe, who explained the situation. It was through the efforts of the Texas NAACP and Bledsoe that this case reached the federal level and a justice department investigation was opened.
