The Suffers’ Kam Franklin Honors the Lives of Hate Crime Victims on New Track “Byrd and Shepard”
Nearly a decade and a half after the passing of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, it only feels like racist and homophobic violence in America has spiked since 2009. While the legitimizing of power of a certain ex-President feels like the obvious instigator here, the Anti-Defamation League reported that 2022 marked the highest number of recorded “white supremacist propaganda incidents” in our nation’s history, as hate crimes increased 38 percent from the previous year.
Such is the situation addressed on the new solo single from Kam Franklin of The Suffers, who’s following up the Texas soul-funk group’s 2022 LP It Starts with Love with a characteristically empathetic standalone track dedicated to James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard, for whom the aforementioned Hate Crimes Prevention Act was named. Pairing her familiar powerhouse vocals with an Americana twang and disco-inspired percussion and bass, “Byrd and Shepard” honors the titular victims by bluntly acknowledging the lack of progress—if not downright regression—our elected officials have made in amending our legal code to prevent this sort of tragedy.