Hi. The photograph (attached) alone makes this version of the Jena 6 worthy of sending out. In a nutshell, what's missing is the back story of a tree which has, apparently forever, been the birthright of white students. A black student asked a counselor if he and other black students could sit there. Answered yes, they did so. The next day nooses appeared on the tree and several students were attacked by white gangs. One, took a gun from a white student who threatened them. The DA came to the school and told students he held their lives in his hands. Broadly, this was the background for the fight in question, the arrests and the rest. No one should need exposition of the past 400 years, but the article provides a contemprary solution: "The tree has been cut down."
It is disgusting and disquieting to see this story without a history. Democracy Now has been on it this week, interviewing students, parents, faculty and authorities and playing recorded speeches by the DA and others. I'm certain they will follow today with a comprehensive review, interviews with the principals as well as the notables. On KPFK fm, 6 and 9 AM, for others, click on http://pacifica.org/ , then the station in your area. Also on 500 other stations, Direct Tv, et al. Ed PS: I just now got much better coverage from - gasp - the Chicago Tribune, and have appended it below the NY Times one. Interesting contrasts. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/21jena.html?th&emc=th Protest in Louisiana Echoes the Civil Rights Era More than 10,000 people rallied Thursday in Jena, La., to publicize the case of six black youths who were initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white schoolmate. By RICHARD G. JONES NY Times: September 21, 2007 JENA, La., Sept. 20 - In a slow-moving march that filled streets, spilled onto sidewalks and stretched for miles, more than 10,000 demonstrators rallied Thursday in this small town to protest the treatment of six black teenagers arrested in the beating of a white schoolmate last year. Chanting slogans from the civil rights era and waving signs, protesters from around the nation converged in central Louisiana, where the charges have made this otherwise anonymous town of 3,000 people a high-profile arena in the debate on racial bias in the judicial system. "That's not prosecution, that's persecution," the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the founder of the RainbowPUSH Coalition and an organizer of the demonstration, told a crowd in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse. "We will not stop marching until justice runs down like waters." The Jena High School students, known as the Jena Six, are part of a court case that began in December, when they were accused of beating a white classmate unconscious and kicking him and a prosecutor charged them with attempted murder. The beating was preceded by racially charged incidents at the high school, including nooses hanging from an oak tree that some students felt was just for white students. The tree has been cut down. One student, Mychal Bell, 17, was convicted in June of aggravated battery and conspiracy. Those charges were voided by appeals courts, most recently last Friday. Mr. Bell has not been released from jail. Even as demonstrators marched in Jena, which is 85 percent white, an appellate court ordered an emergency hearing to determine why Mr. Bell had not been released. Mr. Bell is the sole student who has had a trial. Amid pressure from critics, prosecutors have gradually scaled back many charges against the other five. Although the starting incident occurred about a year ago, the case has been slow to join the national conversation. After Mr. Bell's conviction, though, the details spread quickly on the Internet, text messaging and black talk radio. The case has drawn the attention of President Bush, who said to reporters in Washington on Thursday, "Events in Louisiana have saddened me." "I understand the emotions," Mr. Bush said. "The Justice Department and the F.B.I. are monitoring the situation down there, and all of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice." Students, particularly those at historically black colleges, have also had a pivotal role in spreading the details. They poured into town after all-night bus rides. Many said they were happy to pick up the torch of the civil rights struggle. "This is the first time something like this has happened for our generation," said Eric Depradine, 24, a senior at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. "You always heard about it from history books and relatives. This is a chance to experience it for ourselves." A sophomore schoolmate, Charley Caldwell Jr., 22, said he was moved to attend the rally by the details of the case. "When I first heard about it," Mr. Caldwell said, "I thought it was obscene. So I felt I had to come. When we got here, there's nothing but white people, and they aren't used to seeing this many people of color." The case also resonates for people not in college. April Jones, 17, who traveled from Atlanta, with her parents, Diana and Derrick, said she saw the problem as one of basic fairness. Ms. Jones could not understand why the students who hung the nooses were not punished severely. The students were briefly suspended. District Attorney J. Reed Walters said Wednesday that the action did not appear to violate any state laws. "I just feel like every time the white people did something," Ms. Jones said, "they dropped it, and every time the black people did something, they blew it out of proportion." Mr. Walters sharply criticized the nooses on Wednesday, saying: "I cannot overemphasize what a villainous act that was. The people that did it should be ashamed of what they unleashed on this town." A marcher, Latese Brown, 40, of Alexandria, said, "If you can figure out how to make a school yard fight into an attempted murder charge, I'm sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime." === Demonstrators descend on Jena By Howard Witt, Tribune senior correspondent September 20, 2007, Chicago Tribune www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-jena-witt_websep21,0,81850.story?coll=chi_tab01_layoutchicagotribune.com JENA, La. In a mile-long procession, tens of thousands of civil rights demonstrators from around the nation marched this morning from the courthouse of this racially embattled town to the schoolyard where nooses were hung from a tree last year as a warning to black students. Chanting "No justice, no peace," the black-clad demonstrators walked down quiet residential streets as homeowners somberly watched from their front steps, their arms crossed in front of them. The marchers included fathers carrying children on their shoulders, infants in strollers and old people in wheelchairs. Their rally point was the spot where the noose- bearing tree once stood. The tree has since been cut down by local authorities. As the marchers passed by, town residents watched from a distance. One, who would only give his name as Jay, said: "They have freedom to march and freedom of speech. But I happen to know the victim [the white student who was attacked], and what those kids did to him was wrong." "Our town is not racist like this is being depicted. The nooses were just a joke." Earlier this morning, the demonstrators, most of them riding buses all night, descended on Jena for what was being regarded as the largest civil rights demonstration in years. A seemingly endless convoy of buses from black colleges and black churches around the country jammed the two two-lane highways leading into the town square, where they dropped off their passengers in front of the courthouse. The emptied buses moved on to make way for still more buses carrying more demonstrators, who are joining Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and others to support six black teenagers charged with felonies after the beating of a white student. Racial tensions began to build a year ago in the town after three white high schoolers hung nooses from a shade tree in a warning to stay away directed at black students. Schools Supt. Roy Breithaupt dismissed the incident as an "adolescent prank" and declined to expel the white students, outraging many African-American residents and setting off months of racial fights on and off the campus. Estimates of today's expected crowd ranged to up to 50,000. In many ways it was a spontaneous, largely unorganized demonstration, fueled by the Internet. Lines were being clearly drawn. Demonstrators vastly outnumbered Jena's nearly all-white population. "God has the power to wipe Jena, Louisiana, off the map," said Minister Deric Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam in Houston, as he spoke in front of the courthouse to a crowd whose view of him was partially obstructed by 40 strategically placed portable toilets set up by town officials. He told the early crowd that he was delivering a message from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, "If they don't give justice, watch what God Almighty will do." Despite long hours of travel, there were few signs of weariness. "I have growing boys," said Karl Carpenter, 43, an executive with a semiconductor company who decided "at the last minute" to drive his wife and four children from Nashville to Jena. "What happened to the kids here could happen to my kids. . . . This is an opportunity for our kids to see other people like themselves stand up for what is right." Earnestine Hodnett, 58, of Virginia Beach, Va., said that when she heard about the march: "I just knew I had to come. I feel very proud today because it was difficult to get our people to come together and do it in a nonviolent fashion." But she said officials were insulting the demonstrators with the positioning of the toilets and absence of trash receptacles. "They want to see a mess left so they can complain how we trashed the place. They want this demonstration to fail," she said. Ella Bell King, 59, of Alexandria, La., slept overnight with other family members in front of the courthouse. "The civil rights movement is finally catching up with Jena," she said. "Something like this should have happened here 40 years ago. "There are two laws here, one for the blacks and one for the whites." _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. 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