jenaprotest

PROTEST OVER JENA INJUSTICE

The Scene In Jena, LA - July 31st.

Warm, humid, blue skies greeted Jena (say ‘Gina’), Louisiana Tuesday morning (July 31) as people gathered at the LaSalle Parish Courthouse to protest the continued prosecution and incarceration of the six black high-school students now collectively known as the “Jena 6”. The events leading up to this event (see summary & source list below) are becoming well-reported in the netroots but are still largely under- or even unreported by the mainstream media.

Briefly, after a series of racially inflammatory events leading up to a high school brawl in predominantly White, unreconstructed, Jena, six Black high school students were arrested on wildly exaggerated charges of attempted 2nd degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and continue to be held under bonds so exorbitantly high their families cannot raise the money to pay them and get their children out of jail.

One, Mychal Bell (who was only 16 years old when arrested on December 4th last year), was tried and convicted as an adult, on reduced charges of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy on June 29th this year and faced sentencing on July 31st. He refused to plead guilty to a lesser felony in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Numerous civil rights, peace and justice, and progressive activist groups organized to protest his conviction and potential 20 year sentence. Possibly due to the scheduled protest or because of ongoing legal maneuvers, the sentencing date was moved to September 20th but the rally was held nonetheless.

King Downing Addresses Rally

People gathered from as far away as New York and California. By 9 AM about 250 - 300 had arrived and, following a “call” by an African drummer, King Downing (National Coordinator for the ACLU Campaign Against Racial Profiling) called for everyone’s attention. An opening “libation to the spirits of the ancestors” was conducted in African tradition by one of the local elders. Following that Mr. Downing introduced a succession of speakers representing various groups that have all been heavily involved in the Jena 6 issue. These included clergy from several Christian denominations, several Ministers from Nation of Islam mosques representing Houston, Baton Rouge, and Monroe, the Millions More Movement, The New Black Panthers, and Rev. Alan Bean representing Friends of Justice (of the Tulia drug frame-up incident). The Color of Change’s James Rucker presented 46,000+ signed petitions for the release of the Jena 6, and lastly, a rousing speech by Jordan Flaherty, editor of Left Turn Magazine (watch Jordan’s account on

The "Jena 6" Families

DemocracyNow! At Hundreds March in Jena, Louisiana in Support of the Jena Six*). All the speeches were punctuated by enthusiastic chants of “No Justice – No Peace”, Stop the Jena-cide - Now, “Education - Yes, Incarceration - No”, and others. Most moving of all, though, werethe words of the families of the ‘Jena 6’ and the speech by ‘Jena 6’ mother and newly elected LaSalle Parish NAACP President, Ms. Caseptla Bailey, Robert Bailey Jr’s mother.

Around 10:30, Jena 6 family members and associated community leaders filed into the

46,000 Signed Petitions

LaSalle Parish Courthouse to hand-deliver the 46,000+ signed petitions to District Attorney J. Reed Walters.

Once they returned to the rally, an orderly march from the courthouse through downtown Jena and back to the courthouse lasting perhaps 20 minutes ended the demonstration. Those who wished to, repaired to a local baseball field for refreshments & a get-together with the Jena 6 families before heading home.

The demonstration was non-violent under the watchful eyes of both ACLU & Lawyers Guild observers. Local law enforcement was present and vigilant but neither threatening nor obstructive.

Marching Through Downtown Jena

All present agreed to return again on Mychal Bell’s sentencing date, September 20th.

* I appear briefly at 1:39 in the broadcast wearing a “Free the ‘Jena 6’” tee shirt, carrying the “END JIM CROW [in]JUSTICE IN JENA” sign.

THE ‘JENA 6’ EVENTS

About 17 years ago a couple of White girls and one of their Black schoolmates (now a “Jena 6” family member - who related this anecdote to me) planted an oak tree on the Jena High School campus to provide sorely needed shade for the student body. By September 2006 that tree had been co-opted as “the White tree”; used by White students only.

After asking ‘permission’ to use the tree and receiving an ‘all clear’ from the school’s administration several Black students sat under the tree one day. The next day there were 3 nooses hanging from the tree. The responsible White students were identified but the school principle’s recommendation for expulsion was overruled by the White school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, who ignored the clear racist threat stating: "Adolescents play pranks… I don't think it was a threat against anybody." and merely suspended the guilty students for 3 days. In protest the Black students organized a sit-in under the “White” tree. In consequence, the LaSalle Parish D.A., J. Reed Walters and 10 policemen were brought to a school assembly and warned the Black students that if they continued their protest "…I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The school was locked down and the halls patrolled by police the rest of that week.

The Remains of Jena High's Academic Wing

On Thursday, November 20th, 2006, the main academic wing of the school burned down due to an arson for which no arrests have yet been made - but which the White community blames on Blacks and racial tensions soared. On December 1st Robert Bailey, a Black student, was unexpectedly assaulted by Justin Sloan, a White student, and his sister, Jessie, while attending a party at the Jena Fair Barn (generally considered a “White” venue) after which a general brawl ensued - one arrest was made (Sloan?) and punished with probation. The next day White Jena High graduate, Matt Windham, age 22 - who’d been involved in the brawl the night before - and two friends brandished a shotgun at some Black students at a local stop ’n rob. The Blacks wrestled the gun away from him and ran. He was not charged but they were arrested and charged with theft (the disposition of this incident is not reported).

On December 4th White Jena High student Justin Barker began taunting Black students at school with racial epithets and voicing his approval of the nooses incident and the Black student’s beating after which a group of Black students subsequently beat him. He was treated & released from the local hospital within 3 hours and was partying with friends later that night. Several hours later police arrested Robert Bailey Junior (age 17, bail $138,000), Theo Shaw (age 17, bail $130,000, Carwin Jones (age 18, bail $100,000), Bryant Purvis (age 17, bail $70,000), Mychal Bell (age 16, bail $90,000) a sophomore charged as an adult, and Jessie Beard (age 15) all charged with attempted 2nd degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and were expelled from school. The arrests were made on the basis of statements collected from randomly selected White student ‘witnesses’ and the high bonds made it impossible for the financially stressed families to bail their sons out of jail.

On May 10th Justin Barker, 17, the White victim of the Dec. 4 beating was arrested after being found to have a loaded rifle behind the seat of his pickup truck in the school parking lot. Barker told police he had forgotten it was there and had no intention of using it. No charges are reported to have been filed.

The "White Tree" Stump

D.A. Walters tried 16 year-old Mychal Bell, as an adult, on reduced charges of second-degree aggravated battery and conspiracy (a “dangerous weapon” is needed to sustain “aggravation” - the “dangerous weapon” was identified as Bell’s tennis shoes”). Although offered a plea-bargain to a lesser felony, Bell refused to admit to a felony. He was convicted on June 29th after a trial so fraught with errors that an appeal will be filed and is certain to find in Bell’s favor. He was due for sentencing on July 31st but sentencing was rescheduled for September 20th after a demonstration was scheduled for the initial sentencing date and possibly due to legal maneuvering.

The “White” Tree was recently cut down by order of the School Board in the forlorn hope of removing an ongoing symbol of ongoing racial injustice.