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Jena
Six Rally Highlights Racial Tensions |
Posted:
09.24.07
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Civil rights protesters rallied Sept. 20 in support of an imprisoned
Louisiana teenager, whose case is being called a symbol of a racist
criminal justice system.
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Thousands of people marched into the small town of Jena, La.,
to protest the sentence of Mychal Bell and the treatment of five
other black teenagers, called the "Jena six," accused
of beating up a white teenager last December.
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Origins of
the conflict |
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The beating followed an incident in August 2006, when a black
student at Jena High School asked the principal at an assembly
if he was allowed to sit under a tree where white students usually
gathered.
 He
was told yes, but the next day several nooses hung from the tree.
The nooses, symbols of white supremacist movements that recall
the lynchings of the 1960s, sparked fights and tensions in the
small town of under 3,000 residents.
The white students responsible for the nooses were suspended
and not charged with any crime.
Months later, when the black teenagers were accused of the beating,
they were expelled and initially faced attempted murder charges.
The victim, Justin Barker, was beaten unconscious but was able
to attend a school event later in the day.
"It's not a question of innocence; it's a question of equity;
it's a question of people being treated fairly. Because this was
not a one-sided conflict," Theodore Shaw, president of the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told the NewsHour.
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The case
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The prosecutor
in the beatings, District Attorney Reed Walters, has argued that
the case has nothing to do with race.
He said the white teenagers who hung the nooses were not charged
with a crime because he could not find a Louisiana law  that
applied to their actions.
Of the six teenagers accused of the beating, Mychal Bell, who
was 16 at the time of the attack, is the only one whose case has
gone to trail. He was tried as an adult and convicted on aggravated
battery and conspiracy charges.
His conviction was overturned by the state court of appeals,
which said he should have been charged as a minor.
Bell remains in jail as prosecutors consider an appeal to the
ruling.
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A national
protest |
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National attention for the case grew through black radio shows,
mass e-mails, blogs and university campus groups.
The protestors who poured into Jena on buses from around the
state and around the country, chanted "free the Jena six"
as they walked to the site of the tree where nooses were hung.
The tree was cut down by the school.
Simultaneous demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C, Philadelphia
and New York City.
 The
Reverend Al Sharpton, one of the black leaders who spoke at the
march, called the gathering the beginning of the 21st century
civil rights movement.
"There's a Jena in every state," Sharpton said.
Goldie Davenport, a demonstrator from Southern University, told
the Shreveport Times the movement was to "force change."
"Sometimes the damage is done when outrageous things happen,
no one feels support so they become passive," Davenport said.
"In these small towns tucked away under the tree branches,
people are mistreated in many ways, but they see no way out."
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The new Jim
Crow? |
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Many demonstrators referenced the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s, which created
a system of "separate but equal" status for African
Americans until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Alan Bean, founder and director of the Friends of Justice, told
the Times-Picayune he is worried about the "new Jim Crow
-- using the criminal justice system to control the consequences
of poverty."
A report by the New York-based Urban League found that black
men are three times more likely than white men to face jail once
they have been arrested, and received jail sentences on average
15 percent longer than whites convicted of the same crime.
Meanwhile the case continues to generate heat. The FBI is currently
investigating a white supremacist Web site that posted the addresses
of the Jena six teenagers, and there was a copycat cases of nooses
hung at a school in North Carolina.
--
Compiled by Talea Miller for NewsHour Extra
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
