The ballad of Billy Ray


Whatever happened to Billy Ray Johnson? He used to be a familiar face around town: the middle-aged and mentally challenged black man who was always walking the back roads of Linden.

Morris Dees and Billy Ray Johnson
Morris Dees and Billy Ray Johnson

On a September night in 2003, he was picked up and driven to a pasture party where four young white men gave him beer and told him to dance. They laughed and called him a nigger. Then one of them beat Billy Ray into unconsciousness. Afterward, his body was dumped on the side of a country road.

Johnson nearly died.

The collective shoulder shrug of Linden’s residents drew national outrage. “Old South racism lives in Texas town,” read one headline in the Chicago Tribune.

High-powered civil rights lawyer Morris Dees took up Johnson’s case, and in April 2007, a civil jury awarded a $9 million verdict. “After the case was over, they sat in the jury box and talked about how it had changed the community and the whole region,” Dees said in a recent phone interview.

“They felt the attention brought on the case by the news media was making their town look bad, but when they saw the facts brought out, they showed the nation they weren’t racially biased or bigoted and they could do justice.”

With the trial’s conclusion, the media glare turned elsewhere, and life as usual returned to most of Linden’s 2,100 residents. But Johnson’s story didn’t end there. The fight for his money was only beginning.


9,764 responses to “The ballad of Billy Ray”

  1. Hey, you used to write great, but the last several posts have been kinda boring? I miss your tremendous writings. Past several posts are just a bit out of track! come on!

  2. Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it is really informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

  3. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent website. I stumbledupon it 😉 I am going to return yet again since i have bookmarked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help other people.

  4. Thanks for the useful information on credit repair on this web-site. Some tips i would offer as advice to people would be to give up this mentality that they may buy now and pay later. As a society most of us tend to try this for many issues. This includes family vacations, furniture, as well as items we would like. However, you have to separate your current wants out of the needs. While you are working to raise your credit ranking score make some trade-offs. For example it is possible to shop online to economize or you can click on second hand shops instead of high priced department stores with regard to clothing.

  5. Thanks for your blog post. The things i would like to bring up is that pc memory has to be purchased if your computer still cannot cope with everything you do by using it. One can mount two random access memory boards containing 1GB each, for instance, but not certainly one of 1GB and one of 2GB. One should check the manufacturer’s documentation for the PC to ensure what type of memory space is essential.

  6. Thanks , I have just been looking for info about this subject for ages and yours is the best I have found out till now. However, what about the bottom line? Are you sure concerning the source?|

  7. Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very difficult to get that “perfect balance” between usability and appearance. I must say that you’ve done a great job with this. Additionally, the blog loads extremely quick for me on Safari. Outstanding Blog!

Leave a Reply to how does AI crypto trading work Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *