In June 1998, three white men beat black hitchhiker James Byrd Jr. until he was unable to move, chained his ankles to their truck’s back bumper, and dragged him until his body was beheaded and torn into pieces. Most Americans were shocked by this grisly racial murder in Jasper, Texas. It brought back disturbing memories of the South prior to the 1960s civil rights movement—a time when African Americans were frequently terrorized by whites intent on subjugating blacks and keeping the races separate.

In some ways, the outpouring of sympathy following Byrd’s death reveals how much race relations have progressed since the middle of the twentieth century. Commentator Deroy Murdock reports that the Texas town “united after this tragedy. . . . Both black and white ministers led Jasper’s 8000 citizens in interracial rallies...