New York City has been ordered in federal court to pay $275 000 of back wages to a police officer and two firemen who were fired in 1998 for riding on a Labor Day Float that re-enacted a hate crime.

Joseph Locurto, Robert Steiner, and Jonathan Walters rode in blackface aboard a float called "Black to the Future," which depicted the death of James Byrd, who was dragged to pieces by a pickup truck.

The three men claimed they had no racist intent, and Judge John Sprizzo ruled last year their constitutional rights were violated by the firings.

The three are petitioning the city to be rehired.

(James Byrd, Jr., was kidnapped, beaten unconscious, spray painted in the face with black paint, tied to the back of a pick-up truck, pants dropped down to his ankles, dragged 2.5 miles over pavement through a rural black community in Jasper County, Texas called Huff Creek, leaving his skin, blood, arms, head, genitalia, and other parts of his body strewn along the highway. His remains were dumped in front of a black cemetery.)