James Craig Anderson was a 47-year-old American man who was murdered in a hate crime in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 26, 2011, by 18-year-old Deryl Dedmon of Brandon.

At the time of his death, Anderson was working on the assembly line at the Nissan plant in Canton, and raising an adopted son with his partner.

The FBI conducted a high-profile civil rights investigation of Anderson's murder; it led to indictments of 10 persons, including Dedmon, for a conspiracy of several hate crimes against African Americans in Jackson committed from the spring of 2011 to March 2012.

[4] In March 2012, Dedmon, John Rice and Dylan Butler[5] pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and conspiracy charges.

In December 2012, William Kirk Montgomery and Jonathan Kyle Gaskamp also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and federal hate crimes for their roles, as well.

In the seven years prior to his death, Anderson had been working on the assembly line at the Nissan plant in the Jackson suburb of Canton, Mississippi.

[1] A group of young white men and women were drinking and partying in the small town of Puckett in Rankin County, Mississippi.

[11] According to prosecutors, the people in the Jeep were the first to spot James Craig Anderson near his truck in the parking lot at the Metro Inn in Jackson at 5 am on June 26.

Video from a motel security camera shows the perpetrators entering and leaving the picture frame, but did not capture the beating.

From 2012 to 2014, the FBI indicted a total of 10 individuals involved in a conspiracy to commit hate crimes against African Americans in Jackson, including the attack against Anderson.

Four other incidents, beginning in the spring of 2011 and extending through March 22, 2012, included the following: On September 20, a grand jury indicted Dedmon on charges of capital murder as well as a hate crime.

[9] On March 22, 2012, Dedmon, Rice, and Butler pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and conspiracy charges.

[5] On December 4, 2012, Jonathan Gaskamp, Joseph Dominick, and William Montgomery also pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and conspiracy charges.

[22][23][24] Another four of the total of 10 charged with hate crimes were indicted on eight counts in July 2014: John Louis Blalack, Sarah Adelia Graves, Robert Henry Rice, and Shelbie Brooke Richards, all of whom had been with Dedmon and his group the night of the attack against Anderson.

Release of the motel video showing Anderson being run over attracted national attention, ultimately resulting in a federal civil rights investigation.

On August 14, 2011, about 500 people marched in Jackson from a church to the motel to denounce the "racially motivated hate crime".

[10] The subsequent FBI investigation found evidence of a conspiracy by 10 individuals to commit several hate crimes against African Americans in Jackson from the spring of 2011 to 2012.

[2] With the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in September 2011 the siblings and mother of James Anderson filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against seven of the group who were involved in the attack on him.