On
Wednesday Sept. 26th 2007, walk our of your class, dorm, job, where
ever you are and come to library mall so that we can make a
collective stand against the injustice that is the Jena Six. Let our
actions scream louder than our voices, but let our voices ring
Madison with our protest. Come and show your solidarity.
Don't know about THE JENA
6??!?! READ BELOW
Last fall in Jena, Louisiana,
the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on
their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent
dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in
protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the
town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling
them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your
lives with a stroke of my pen."1
A series of white-on-black
incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white
student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging
six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like
one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used
the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening
today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the odds are
stacked against them. Together, we can make sure their story is told, that
this becomes an issue for the Governor of Louisiana, and that justice is
provided for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please add your voice:
www.colorofchange.org/jena
The noose-hanging incident and
the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed.
Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30,
the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an
unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by
white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience
store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the
gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white
man, the students were arrested for the theft of the gun.2
That Monday at school, a white
student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses,
taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and
allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was
knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the
hospital but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that
evening.3
Six Black Jena High students,
Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17),
Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school,
arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so
high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison
for months as families went deep into debt to release them.4
The first trial ended last
month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted
of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both
felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called
no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak
to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the
courtroom or where the judge could see them.
Mychal is scheduled to be
sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years.5 Theo Shaw's
trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.
The Jena Six are lucky to have
parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They
have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the
families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home.
They will lose precious years to Jena's outrageous attempt to maintain a
racist status quo. But if we act now, we can make a difference.
Please add your voice to the
voices of these families in Jena, and help bring Mychal, Theo, Robert,
Carwin, and Bryant home. By clicking below, you can demand that Louisiana
Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served
for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5
boys who have not yet gone to trial.
www.colorofchange.org/jena
Thank You and Peace,
-- James, Van, Gabriel,
Clarissa, and the rest of the
ColorOfChange.org team July 17th, 2007
References:
"Injustice in Jena as Nooses
Hang From the White Tree,'" truthout, July 3, 2007
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml
"Racial demons rear heads,"
Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yvh7t5
3. See reference #1.
4. See reference #1.
5. "'Jena Six' defendant
convicted," Town Talk, June 29, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ysxtgg
Other resources:
NPR: Searching for Justice in
Jena 6 Case (streaming audio)
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11756302
Democracy Now! - The case of
the Jena Six ...
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220
Too Sense: Free The Jena Six
Now
http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/free-jena-six-now.html
While Seated: Jena Six
www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml
Nooses, attacks and jail for
black students in Jena Louisiana
www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/28/144445/384
Justice In Jena, by Jordan
Flaherty
www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=12783�ionID=30
The Perpetrator becomes the
Prosecutor (and other related entries)
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/blog/
'Stealth racism' stalks deep
South
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7170510?MSNHPHMA07
