The writer is a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a national leader of Youth & Student ANSWER. He participated in a delegation to Jena and marched on July 31.
On July 31, family members and supporters of the “Jena 6” descended on the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, La., to demand justice and freedom for the six.
The Jena 6 are six young Black high school students who have been falsely charged with second degree attempted murder and
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One of the six, 17-year-old Mychal Bell, was convicted in June by an all-white jury of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bell faces up to 22 years in prison for allegedly participating in a minor schoolyard scuffle. The remaining five—teenagers as young as 15-years-old—have been indicted and await trial.
The July 31 protest drew around 300 people who marched through downtown Jena, a small rural town of 3,000. All were there to stop the legal lynching of the Jena 6. The protesters came from across the country, with large numbers from New Orleans and Texas and some from the small Black community in Jena.
Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, told PSLweb.org, “This is the first time that a march like this has happened in Jena.”
A delegation from the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation participated in the protest and the Jena 6 support committee meeting on the night before.
Speakers from various organizations like the NAACP and the Nation of Islam spoke about the need to fight racism and win justice for the Jena 6.
Activists with colorofchange.org deposited a petition with 45,000 signatures on the doorsteps of the courthouse. The petition requests Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to intervene in the case and prevent Bell’s sentencing.
A case of racist injustice
The Jena 6 case highlights the racism that is still pervasive in the United States today.
The Six are the victims; not the aggressors. Along with the rest of the Black students at Jena High School, they were terrorized by racist white students.
In September 2006, a Black student decided to sit under a tree at Jena High School. It was known as a place where
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The following day, three nooses were hanging from the branch of that same “white tree.” It was an ominous warning for Black students to stay away.
The white students received no punishment for celebrating Southern lynching. Instead, the Jena 6 were arrested just months later for supposedly beating up one of the racist students who supported the hanging of the nooses and frequently made racist remarks at school.
The Jena 6 were held on unbelievably high bonds, which kept them in jail for weeks. Some stayed in jail for months. The authorities moved swiftly to convict them all.
Bell was convicted after a short trial in June. The racist police and courts in LaSalle Parish hoped that they could use similar evidence to railroad the other five.
But, as evidenced by the July 31 action, support is growing rapidly for the Jena 6 around the country. The word is getting out about this racist outrage. Major corporate media outlets such as NPR and the International Herald Tribune recently ran significant stories about the case.
Supporters of the Jena 6 are planning September actions to coincide with Mychal Bell’s sentencing on Sept. 20. The trials of the other five young men will begin in the fall.
Throughout the summer and until they are free, with all charges dropped, activists will continue to raise awareness about the case and demand justice for the Jena 6.
Stop the legal lynching! Free the Jena 6!
