Ronald Sample argues with David Shultz during a city council meeting on June 12, 2023 in Jasper. Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune. Mamie Horn Aplon, daughter of Jasper’s first Black ...

JASPER — On a Monday evening in June, Anderson Land called the Jasper City Council meeting to order with a prayer and a reminder that would soon become a familiar refrain: “Council meetings ...

People in Jasper are in many ways still dealing with the aftermath of James Byrd Jr.'s 1998 murder. Many residents say the perpetrators were caught, but the crime still unfairly weighs on the town.