The legal distinction of a hate crime grew out of the endemic violence employed by Jim Crow governments and their defenders to halt the Civil Rights movement. Lynchings, bombings, shootings, beatings, and acts of intimidation were often the first resort for whitesupremacists against civil rights protestors of all races and genders. It was not uncommon for murderers, because of local sentiment sanctioning their actions, to be acquitted and released. For example, the first two trials of Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi ended in hung juries despite overwhelming evidence because his actions were sanctioned enthusiastically by the white public. In fact, then-Governor Ross Barnett went so far as to interrupt the trial to shake De La Beckwith’s hand while MedgarEvers’ widow was testifying. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 defined what would later be called a “hate crime” as

Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, by force or threat of force willfully injures, intimidates or interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because of his race, color, religion or national origin or because an individual was exercising their federally protected activities— using public accommodations, attending public schools or colleges, participating in a state provided program, applying for a job, serving on a jury, and traveling in any facility of interstate commerce or common carrier of transportation.1