Jena 6 Rallywas about Equal Justice

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Jena 6 Rally was about Equal Justice


(CNN) -- As I watched thousands of people gather in Jena, Louisiana, via CNN and CNN.com, tears were streaming down my face. Roland Martin says he wishes the crowds in Jena, Louisiana, were far more integrated.

Even though I was doing my radio show on WVON-AM in Chicago at the time, it was truly emotional watching the display.

It was reminiscent of the Million Man March in 1995, when black men gathered in the nation's capital in a mass show of unity.

As a 38-year-old African-American man, I have no memory of the Civil Rights Movement.

I was born November 14, 1968, and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated seven months earlier.

His death, in many ways, signaled an end to that long but peaceful resistance against America's systemic and deeply rooted oppression of African-Americans.

It was great seeing so many people exercising their free speech and right to protest, but to also demand a change to what they felt is an unjust legal system.

Many people have commented on what is taking place in Jena, with some suggesting that the six black teens accused of beating a white teen deserve years in prison, while others say they should be freed. Watch Martin talk about the rally and the case »

It is true that Justin Barker, a white teen, was beaten and left
unconscious. The disturbing photos clearly show that.

Yet, the question as to whether a school fight -- one that sent Barker to the hospital, only to see him released the same day and attend a party that night -- warranted the teens to be charged with attempted murder.

Folks, that's the primary reason for the outrage that you have seen and heard.

Much of the reporting and commentary on this has been shallow, choosing to see it as a black-white issue, as opposed to the various views of how do you define equal justice in America.

Let's try this exercise for a moment. We can remove all racial tags and ask ourselves some critical questions.

If you heard that six teens had beaten up another teen leaving him unconscious, would you think that those accused deserved to be tried as adults and face upwards of 80 years in jail?

If a group of teens hung a noose on a tree, and the principal recommended to expel them, and then the school board overruled them, what would you say about that?

Prior to Justin Barker being beaten, another teen (who was black) was beaten, and no charges were filed against the (white) students in that case, would you question the district attorney's action in Barker's case?

Lady Justice in America is supposed to be blind. We all want to have confidence in our legal system so that when someone is prosecuted, it is fair and just. But so many people know that is not the case.

Look at O.J. Simpson. Thirteen years later, people are still mad that he got off.

Fine. So if you're mad about O.J., are you equally offended about Jena?

Frankly, I wish the crowds in Jena were far more integrated. I was hoping more whites would show up to express their displeasure with this justice system.

And I am hoping that those who see this case -- and O.J. -- as wrong will look at the case of former Chicago police commander Jon Burge, who has been accused of leading the torture of upwards of 200 black and Hispanic men over nearly two decades.

Many of them went to prison based on beaten confessions, and when they were freed, the city paid millions in settlements.

But what happened to Burge? He's sitting in his Florida home, collecting a big pension, while the city spends millions defending him (because he was a city employee). He has never been charged.

We can travel all across America and find case after case after case of men and women who have been wrongfully imprisoned, some sitting on the doorsteps of the death chamber.

What should we take away from Jena? We must all be vigilant in demanding that our legal system is fair and just. We must not be silent and say it's not in our backyard, so therefore it doesn't matter.

It might be the Jena 6 today, and it just might be your household tomorrow.

Write. Call. E-mail. Petition. Protest. If all of that leads to more
fairness and equality, then the march was valuable.

Your race doesn't matter in this. Your voice is what counts.

Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning, multifaceted journalist and CNN contributor. Martin is studying to receive his master's degree in Christian Communications at Louisiana Baptist University, and is the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith."

You can read more of his columns at www.rolandsmartin. com

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Thousands descend on town to support 'Jena Six'

Protesters march past Jena High School during a civil rights march Thursday.

The case of black teenagers hit with heavy charges after beating a white classmate has attracted national attention.

By Jenny Jarvie and Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers September 21, 2007

JENA, LA. -- -- In a scene reminiscent of civil rights protests of decades past, thousands of protesters descended on this small Southern town Thursday to peacefully decry what they said was the unfair treatment of six black teenagers charged with beating a white schoolmate.

The case of the Jena Six, as the defendants have come to be known, attracted a cast of famous black leaders, but many said the crowd was called by fresh chorus of voices -- among them bloggers, black radio personalities and Web-networked college students.

Civil rights rally for 'Jena Six'

Organizers said the crowd swelled to 50,000; state police said it was too spread out to count. As the visitors began pouring into this mostly white central Louisiana community of 3,000 at daybreak, they encountered a ghost town: The courthouse, the high school and almost all the businesses -- from the barber to the bail bondsman -- were closed.

It was not long, though, before the protesters, many of them African American and many wearing black T-shirts, filled the two-lane highway through downtown and residential streets, chanting and holding placards that read "Free the Jena Six" and "Enough Is Enough."

On the steps of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, speakers described the case as an example of an American justice system that continued to treat African Americans unfairly, despite the progress made since the days of Jim Crow.

"In the 20th century, we had to fight for where we sit on the bus," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who arrived at the courthouse with members of the defendants' families. "Now we have to fight on how we sit in the courtroom."

Added the Rev. Jesse Jackson: "There is a Jena in every town, a Jena in every state."

That kind of talk was met with disdain by residents of Jena (pronounced JEE-nuh), many of whom stayed indoors for the day. Some who ventured outside said their town had been unfairly singled out, by both protesters and media, as a backwoods redoubt of racial animosity.

"They have cast us a bunch of ignorant, racist bumpkins," said Ray Hodges, an automotive technology teacher at Jena High School. "It's about as far from the truth as you can get. There is racism in Jena, but it's not only in Jena, it's not only in Louisiana, it's not only in the South. It's an American thing."

"I actually heard a girl shout 'Shame on Jena,' " said Pam Sharp, 43, who sat in a plastic chair as the procession filed past her house. "I shouted back, 'No, shame on you!' " How can they include the whole town? That's the shame."

For Sharp, the victim in the case was Justin Barker, the 17-year-old white student who was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious.

"Protesters don't want to talk about him," she said.

At a White House news conference Thursday morning, President Bush said the events in Jena had "saddened" him.

"I understand the emotions," Bush said. "The Justice Department and the FBI are monitoring the situation down there, and all of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice."

Sharpton told the Associated Press that he and other black leaders were trying to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to call Jena's district attorney, Reed Walters, to Capitol Hill to explain his actions.

Walters, in a news conference Wednesday, said the case was not about race but about "finding justice for an innocent victim, and holding people accountable for their actions."

To some black observers, however, the Jena story -- studded with explosive symbols from an age of more widespread and blatant racism -- was too volatile to be ignored.

The trouble started last September when three white students hung nooses from a tree where whites traditionally congregated at the local high school. The students responsible were suspended. Later, part of the school mysteriously burned down.

Racial tensions reportedly flared on campus, and in December, the six black students allegedly beat up Barker. He was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries to his ears, face and eye; later that night, he attended a ring ceremony at school.

The black students were arrested and kicked out of school, and five of them were charged with attempted second-degree murder. (The sixth was charged as a juvenile and was recently allowed to return to classes.) The charges were later reduced.

One of the defendants, Mychal Bell, was tried and found guilty of aggravated battery. His conviction was thrown out this month, though, because he was tried as an adult rather than a juvenile. He remains in custody while prosecutors decided whether to file new charges against him.

The other defendants are awaiting trial dates and face up to 22 years in prison.

To Jasmyne Cannick -- a blogger and black activist from Los Angeles -- such details convinced her that something was clearly amiss in Jena.

In recent days, she said, she has devoted much of her blogging to the case, and encouraged supporters to go to Thursday's protest or wear black in their hometowns.

Cannick and other bloggers linked to an online petition that had more than 380,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon. Addressed to the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, the petition called the treatment of the young men a "gross miscarriage of justice" and demanded a federal investigation. Some of the signatories left searing comments.

"This case is so racist, it's not even funny," wrote Omonike Ayorinde of Illinois. "As a black woman, a noose hanging from a tree is NOT just some 'silly little prank.' My heart and prayers are with these boys and their families."

Members of the social networking website Facebook formed "Free the Jena 6" groups. On the video site YouTube, users posted snippets of news broadcasts and footage from local rallies in support of the defendants. Some delivered homemade protest raps.

"Jena 6 Louisiana, it's so clear -- racism still alive and kickin' down there," rhymed a man who called himself ConsciousL.

In the radio industry, Thursday's protest was seen as a sign of the growing influence of black talk show hosts. Their popularity has been growing in recent years in concert with the general rise of the talk radio phenomenon, according to Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, an industry magazine.

That power has been evident in Atlanta, where radio station WAMJ-FM (102.5) delivers hours of black-oriented talk radio programming. Derek Harper, the station's program director, said that in the last month, most of the station's syndicated talkers -- including Steve Harvey, Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden and Warren Ballentine -- had picked up on the story and made it a major issue.

Ballentine was among a number of radio personalities broadcasting live from Jena on Thursday. He said he had been rallying black people around the issue since learning about it in June.

On his show, he recalled, "I said, 'I'm calling out attorneys, ballplayers, rappers -- you got to step to the plate! . . . Where are you at when our kids need you?' "

That sense of urgency and outrage is not shared by all African Americans,
however.

Joe Hicks, the former head of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference's Los Angeles chapter, accused some black leaders of rushing to judgment. He said the prosecutor must have had a good reason to assume the victim's life was in jeopardy. He also noted that the final verdicts had not been reached.

"I'm troubled by what appears to be a great deal of racial opportunism on the part of some of the orthodox civil rights leadership," said Hicks, who has criticized such leaders from the right in recent years. "They are rushing to condemn what's going on in Jena, and yet some of these guys were clamoring for the conviction of the guys involved in the Duke rape case.

"They're picking up a lot of rocks, and lifted up Jena and decided, 'This is a representation of what black people are facing in America,' " he added. "I don't think that's the state of American race relations at all."

Such sentiments were rare Thursday on the streets of Jena. Instead, protesters listened to rapper Mos Def and a reading from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Another man played African drums. Nearby, Bob Marley tunes blasted from a red truck.

Closer to the school, some protesters held hands in a circle. Others prayed. But most spent their time holding cellphones, digital cameras and camcorders -- recording themselves and their friends in front of the paths the Jena 6 walked, the classrooms where the Jena Six sat, the football field where some of the Jena Six played.

The tree at the center of the controversy was cut down over the summer, but that did not stop protesters like A.J. Walker, who photographed her daughter at the patch of dirt where it once stood.

"I want my children to be part of history," said Walker, a black police officer from Houston. "I want to show them they have to stand for something."

jenny jarvie@latimes. com

richard.fausset@ latimes.com

Jarvie reported from Jena, La.; Fausset from Atlanta, GA

[carolinem]

Jena Update: Crowds, Activism and Outrage

By Maria Newman

Michael Torres of New Orleans stands with fellow demonstrators as they march in Jena, La., today to protest what they say is an injustice against six black teenagers, known as the Jena 6, charged with attempted murder of a white student. Protesters say the charges are a gross overreaction to a schoolyard fight in a school where racial tensions were running high; the authorities say the victim was blindsided with no chance to defend himself.

(Sean Gardner/Reuters)

Richard G. Jones, a reporter for The New York Times, is in Jena, La., today, where protesters have converged in support of the six black youths arrested for beating a white classmate.

Their numbers are overwhelming the little town, he reports. There are crowds gathered peacefully at the city¹s courthouse, at a nearby park, and at the high school that was at the center of the incident whose aftermath drew them here.

They came from far and near: Many of them rode buses all day and all night to get to this town where there was something called ³the white tree.'¹

Fanon Brown, 16, is one of them: He told Mr. Jones that he left Philadelphia at 3 a.m. Wednesday and got to Jena 27 hours later. He is here, he says, not just for the six black boys who were arrested for beating a white classmate after a series of incidents in the town, but for the larger things he said the case represents about race and justice in America:

I can¹t believe that after all these years we still have deformities in our justice system. We have to free the Jena Six but we¹ve got to go home and take care of this racism thing.¹

Before this week, the major national news outlets had barely mentioned the chain of events in Jena that began more than a year ago, but word circulated through the Internet, in the e-mail and text messages that young people use these days to relay news to one another.

Now, the story is on the national agenda, and even President Bush discussed it today with reporters:

³Events in Louisiana have saddened me,'¹ he said at a press conference at the White House. ³I understand the emotions. 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.'¹

This is what the protesters in Jena today have been saying about the troubles here, which began when a black student asked the school¹s assistant prinicipal whether he could sit under a tree in the center of Jena High School that was known as a whites-only gathering place, and was told he could. The next morning, there were two nooses found hanging from the tree.

Diana Jones traveled from Atlanta with her 17-year-old daughter April and her husband, Derrick. ³Nobody should have to ask if they can sit under this tree,'¹ Mrs. Jones told The Times. ³I¹m surprised to hear that this is still happening in 2007.'¹

Another surprise to April and to young people like her, she said, were the polar opposite reactions that different people in Jena seemed to have to each event leading up to the arrests of the six boys.

³I just feel like every time the white people did something, they dropped it, and every time the black people did something, they blew it out of proportion,'¹ she told Mr. Jones of The Times.

Two students from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette said they felt it was their turn to march for civil rights.

³This is the first time something like this has happened for our
generation,'¹ said Eric Depradine, 24, who is a senior. ³You always heard about it from history books and relatives. This the chance to experience it for ourselves.'¹

His schoolmate, Charley Caldwell Jr., 22, who is a sophomore, said he was amazed by details of the case.

³When I first heard about it, I thought it was obscene so I felt I had to come,'¹ he said. ³When we got here, there¹s nothing but white people, and they aren¹t using to seeing this many people of color.

³We¹re here to free the Jena Six,'¹ he continued, using the sobriquet people have emblazoned on T-shirts and signs on display today.

Latese Brown, 40, a social worker from Alexandria, La., about 40 miles from here, said: ³I felt I needed to be here to support these kids. It¹s about time we all stood together for something.'¹

She said she was stunned at remarks on Wednesday by the district attorney, Walter Reed, who said he did not prosecute the students accused of hanging the nooses in the tree because he could find no Louisiana law they could be charged under.

³I cannot overemphasize what a villainous act that was,'¹ he said about the nooses. ³The people that did it should be ashamed of what they unleashed on this town.'¹

As for the beatings, he said, four of the defendants were old enough to be considered adults under Louisiana law, and that one of the juveniles who were charged as adults, Mychal Bell, had a prior criminal record.

³It is not and never has been about race,² Mr. Reed said. ³It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions.²

The Town Talk, an area newspaper, has more on Mr. Reed¹s press conference here.

Ms. Brown expressed incredulity at Mr. Reed¹s line of thinking: ³If you can figure out how to make a school yard fight into an attempted murder charge, I¹m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.'¹

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FBI Probes Anti-Jena 6 Web Page

By BECKY BOHRER – 2 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI is reviewing a white supremacist Web site that purports to list the addresses of five of the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student in Jena and "essentially called for their lynching," an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.

Sheila Thorne, an agent in the FBI's New Orleans office, said authorities were reviewing whether the site breaks any federal laws. She said the FBI had "gathered intelligence on the matter," but declined to further explain how the agency got involved.

CNN first reported Friday about the Web site, which features a swastika, frequent use of racial slurs, a mailing address in Roanoke, Va., and phone numbers purportedly for some of the teens' families "in case anyone wants to deliver justice." That page is dated Thursday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement Saturday that some of the families have received "almost around the clock calls of threats and harassment," and called on Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

A Blanco spokeswoman said the governor had asked law enforcement — primarily state police — to investigate.

"These people need more than an investigation. They need protection," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. He said his organization would be in touch with President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey.

"This is a test for the disposition of the Department of Justice to serve as an intervenor and a deterrent" to hate crimes and discrimination, Jackson said. He said federal marshals should protect the families.

Carolas Purvis, whose number was among three listed on the Web site, said she did not feel in danger. Purvis is the aunt of Bryant Purvis, who has yet to be arraigned. She said she has received a number of calls, some from people who say nothing, others to let her know that her number had been put on the site. One, Friday night, used the N-word to her young son, she said.

A dispatcher for the LaSalle Parish Sheriff's Department said no one in the office Saturday could say whether any threats had been reported.

Of the two other numbers listed as "active" on the Web site, one was not answered Saturday; the other yielded a constant busy signal.

On Thursday, thousands of demonstrators marched in a civil rights demonstration in support of the so-called Jena 6. The six black teens were arrested after a December attack on a white student — the culmination of fights between blacks and whites.

Of the six teens arrested, five initially were charged with attempted second-degree murder; charges for four have been reduced as they were arraigned. Charges against the sixth teen, booked as a juvenile, are sealed.

Mychal Bell is the only one to have been tried so far. A state appeals court recently threw out his conviction for aggravated second-degree battery, saying he couldn't be tried as an adult. He remained in jail pending an appeal.

William A. "Bill" White, listed as the Web site's editor and commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, did not immediately answer an e-mail to his address. Calls to one of the two William Whites listed in Roanoke were not answered; the other said he was not involved with the site.

Blanco said Saturday that harassing families involved in the case "cannot and will not be tolerated."

"Public attacks on private citizens done out of ignorance and hatred is appalling, and anyone who stoops to such unspeakable persecution will be investigated and subject to the full penalty of law," she said in a statement.

ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_B895UEtV38cUvZWav9zg08hh3Q

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NICOLE COLSON reports from Jena, La., on the massive outpouring for a demonstration against a case of Jim Crow-style injustice in the "new South."

FIFTY YEARS ago this month, the world watched as nine Black students braved a jeering white mob as they walked into the segregated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in the pursuit of an equal education.

The images from that September day in 1957 show the ugly reality of American racism. Elizabeth Eckford had arrived alone on the first day of school, and was turned away by the Arkansas National Guard on orders of Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus. The crowd of whites that surrounded her as she later walked to a bus stop looked ready to lynch her. All of the nine would face similar harassment.

Coming after the 1954 Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed legal segregation, Little Rock showed the reality of racism in the U.S.--that equality before the law mattered little in the Jim Crow South, and that racism would have to be fought every step of the way to overcome it.

Today, we're told that America has moved beyond its ugly past--that nooses, "separate but equal" and "Jim Crow justice" are relics of a bygone era. But 50 years after Little Rock, the case of the Jena 6 is proving that racism is alive and well.

The Jena 6 are six high school students facing decades in prison for their alleged part in a school fight--which itself followed a series of racist incidents endured by the small minority of African Americans in this Louisiana town of less than 3,000 people.

The case has many of the hallmarks of the Jim Crow past--a vindictive white prosecutor, all-white juries, blatant double standards in punishment.

And, of course, the nooses--hung from a tree in the courtyard of Jena's high school to intimidate Black students who dared to expect equal treatment.

The story of the Jena 6 has spread around the country and the world, causing disbelief--and anger. On September 20, that anger found an outlet--with tens of thousands of people mobilizing around the country to stand up for the Jena 6.

Hundreds rallied on college campuses in Nashville, Houston, Atlanta, Cleveland, Toledo, Muncie, Ind., Berkeley, Calif., and beyond. In Allentown, Pa., middle school students marched. In Chicago, students from the all-male Hales Franciscan High School on the South Side organized an out-of-uniform day so they could wear black to show support for the Jena 6. Hundreds more marched in communities in Detroit, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

And then there was Jena itself. Tens of thousands of people descended on the tiny town. From early in the morning, protesters came pouring down the sloping road into Jena. They rallied in the town park and walked to the courthouse-- and to Jena High School to witness the spot where the "whites only" tree once stood. The tree has since been removed--although the school's burned-out auditorium, set on fire by an unknown arsonist last November, remains.

Ashleigh Randle, a student at the University of Michigan, drove 22 hours with a group of fellow students to stand in the courtyard. "We wanted to come and stand up for what is right, because we're tired of what's been going on, the racial injustice," she said.

"People act like racism is in the past, but it's not. It's subtle or it's blunt, but it's out there. We want people to know that we're tired of settling for less. I say look around. How can you look at Hurricane Katrina and say racism doesn't exist?"

Ashleigh's fellow student, Shanika Steen, pointed to the spot where the tree once stood. "The noose that was hung on the tree. And another one at the
University of Maryland a couple of days ago. You can't look at these things and say, 'It's not racism, it's just something that happened.'"

Shavette Wayne Jones traveled to Jena from St. Louis with a group of about 60 people. "I came because I have two sons of my own," she said. "I have a
2-year-old and a 9-year-old. My mother and I came together. This could very well be one of my children."

Among everyone in the streets of Jena that day, there was a determination to take a stand--if the racism of the Jim Crow days had returned, they would stand up against it, just like the civil rights marchers of 50 years ago. The sign Shavette held summarized the mood: "Jena, La., today. Anytown, USA, tomorrow. Not on our watch!"