The writer filed this special report from Jena, La.
On Sept. 20, a spirited march of more than 50,000 people filled the streets of this tiny central Louisiana town. They came to denounce Jim Crow racism and the persecution of six Black youth known nationally as the “Jena 6.” Jena has a population of a little over 2,800 people, 12 percent of whom are African American.
The rally took place just a few short weeks after Jena 6 defendant Mychal Bell, 17, was convicted of aggravated battery
|
Bell faced a potential sentence of 15 years in prison. Since the announcement of his conviction, a movement has exploded throughout the United States to demand freedom for the African American high school youth whose only crime was self-defense.
On Sept. 14, with steam gathering for the Sept. 20 rally, the Louisiana 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Bell’s conviction, ruling that he had been improperly tried as an adult.
The massive protest succeeded in gathering over $15,000 in bail for Bell, who has spent 10 months imprisoned while first facing sentencing and now awaiting appeals. Although Bell’s conviction was overturned, Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. denied Bell’s release on Sept. 22.
This latest court action has provoked a continued sense of outrage in the Black community and among supporters. It is clear that an on-going mobilization will be necessary to win justice.
The Jena 6 have gained national attention because of the outrageous nature of their persecution by the white power structure. Aside from Bell, the other defendants are Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and an unidentified minor.
The case began on Aug. 31, 2006, when a young Black student at the local high school sat under the “white tree,” a massive tree that white students controlled on campus.
The next day, three nooses were hung from the tree in a blatant show of intimidation. Several Black youth defied the apartheid status-quo and again sat under the tree.
Despite protests from African American parents, no real remedy was taken to address the noose hanging. The three white youth responsible were given an in school “suspension.”
On the night of Nov. 30, 2006, a school building was burned down, the perpetrators were never identified. The next day, Robert Bailey, a Black student, was invited to an all-white party where he was attacked and beaten by a group of white youth. When the police came, they told Bailey and his friends to “get back to their side of town,” according to Caseptla Bailey, Robert’s mother.
On Dec. 2, 2006, Bailey saw one of his attackers, Matt Windham in a convenience store. Windham pulled out a sawed-off shotgun. Bailey and others wrestled it away from him. Instead of the white student being charged, some of the Black youth were charged with theft of a weapon!
The escalating crisis culminated on Dec. 4 with what began as a shouting dispute between several Black youth and a white youth, Justin Barker, another of those who had carried out the Dec. 1 attack on Bailey. Barker was making racist remarks and refused to stop. A fight broke out between Barker and the Black youth.
Although he suffered bruises, Barker attended a school dance that night. Yet the six youth were soon charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and lesser charges. Bell was convicted of attempted murder as an adult. Mychal Bell, who was 16 years of age at the time of the incident, has been in an adult jail ever since.
Every step of the way, the treatment meted out to the Black youth has been severe while the white youth’s actions have been portrayed as “pranks.”
The civil rights tradition
Evoking the history of the great civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, community and national leaders said it is again time to raise the flag of “fight back.”
Mobilizing through the radio stations, the internet and the circuit of historically Black colleges and universities, word spread about the racist injustice. As we walked alongside the country road toward a backwoods path and onto a playing field near Jena for the 7:00 a.m. rally, charter buses, vans, cars and motorcycles rolled in.
The vast majority of the marchers were African American, and largely from the South. There were massive delegations from Mobile and Birmingham, Ala.; Natchez and Jackson, Miss.; Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas; Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Atlanta and Columbus, Ga.; Charleston, S.C.; and many others.
There were 50 students from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and many other students in attendance. People came from as far away as New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
It appeared that at least half the protestors were from the state of Louisiana. Large delegations came from the nearby cities and towns, including Alexandria, Jonesville, Cottonport, Bunkie and Lafayette, as well as Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles, Plaquemines Parish and elsewhere in the state.
Notable was the strong turnout of members of the American Postal Workers Union, which filled seven buses. The union’s president, William Burrus, made a national call for APWU members to come to Jena. The union banner was held proudly in the rally.
The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were both prominent in the march, as was the Nation of Islam. Hundreds of organizations participated, including sororities, fraternities, church groups, motorcycle clubs and other community, labor and student organizations.
Among the speakers at the various rallies were Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network, Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation Push, nationwide radio host Tom Joyner, NAACP Interim President Dennis Hayes and BET’s Jeff Johnson.
ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and Party for Socialism and Liberation activists also attended, carrying a banner that was photographed by many. It said, “Stop the legal lynching, free the Jena 6.”
Click here to read about Sept. 20 Jena 6 actions in Los Angeles.
