The Struggle to Free the Jena Six
by Jordan Flaherty
"The case in Jena is textbook proof that there
are still two systems of justice functioning in this country, one for Black
people, and one for white."
This article previously appeared in Counterpunch.org.
Almost
a year ago, in the small northern Louisiana town of Jena, a group of white
students hung three nooses from a tree in front of Jena High School. This set
into motion a season of racial tension and incidents that culminated in six
Black youths facing a lifetime in jail for a schoolyard fight.
The story
that has unfolded since then is one of racism and injustice, but also of
resistance and solidarity, as people from around the world have joined together
with the families of the accused, lending legal and financial support, adding
political pressure, and joining demonstrations and marches.
The nooses
were hung after a Black student asked permission to sit under a tree that had
been reserved by tradition for white students only. In response to the three
nooses, nearly every Black student in the school stood under the tree in a
spontaneous and powerful act of nonviolent protest. The town's district
attorney quickly arrived, flanked by police officers, and told the Black
students to stop making such a big deal over the nooses, which school officials
termed to be a "harmless prank." The school assembly, like the
schoolyard where all of this had begun, was divided by race, with the Black students
on one side and the white students on the other. Directing his remarks to the
Black students, District Attorney Reed Walters said, "I can make your
lives disappear with a stroke of a pen."
The white students who confessed to hanging the nooses
never received any meaningful punishment. Nor did the white students who months
later beat up a Black student at a school party, nor did the white former
student who threatened two Black students with a shotgun. But, after these
incidents, when Black students got into a fight with a white student, six Black
youths were charged with attempted murder, and now face a lifetime in prison.
The Black students may not have been involved in the fight, but they were known
to be organizers of the protest under the tree. The white student was briefly
hospitalized, but had no major injuries and was socializing with friends at a
school ring ceremony the evening of the fight.
"District Attorney Reed Walters said, ‘I can make your lives
disappear with a stroke of a pen.'"
The Black
students were arrested immediately after the fight, in December of last year.
School officials and police officials took statements from at least 44
witnesses to the fight. The statements do not paint a clear picture of who was
involved. Statements from white students refer to "Black boys," but
many testimonies are unclear as to the identities of who was involved. Some of
the arrested youths are not implicated in the fight by any of the witnesses.
Despite
this, when Mychal Bell, the first youth to go to trial, refused to take a deal
in exchange for testifying against his friends, he was quickly convicted by an
all-white jury. Bell's public defender Blane Williams, visibly angry at Bell
and his parents because the youth did not take the deal, called no witnesses
and gave no meaningful defense. This attorney's behavior gives a vivid example
of our nation's broken and underfunded public defender system. Some have called
Jena a throwback to the past, but in fact Jena presents a clear vision of the
current state of our criminal justice system.
"Bell's public defender called no witnesses and gave no
meaningful defense."
In Paris,
Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A
black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. Genarlow Wilson, in
Atlanta, is sentenced to ten years in prison for participating in consensual
oral sex with a 15 year old when he was 17. Like these and many other cases,
the case in Jena is textbook proof that there are still two systems of justice
functioning in this country, one for Black people, and one for white. No
serious observer can doubt that the students of Jena would never have faced
charges if a Black student had been beaten instead of a white student. The
unpunished incidents in the days and months leading up to the fight clearly
demonstrate this.
Local Resistance
Immediately
after the arrests, parents of the accused began organizing. Their call,
"Free the Jena Six," was initially heard by activists from other
parts of Louisiana, such as the Lafayette public access TV show,
"Community Defender," which was the first media from outside their
immediate area to give coverage of the case. Noncorporate and grassroots media
has been vital in spreading word of the case, beginning with blogs and YouTube
videos, which then led to high profile stories on Democracy
Now and in The Final
Call.
Lasalle parish, where Jena is located, is 85% white. The
town is still mostly segregated - from the white barber who refuses to cut
Black hair to the white and Black parts of town, separated by an invisible
line. Lasalle is also one of Louisiana's most wealthy parishes, with small oil
rigs in many back yards contributing to area wealth. The parish is a major
contributor to Republican politicians, and former klansman and Louisiana
gubernatorial candidate David Duke received a solid majority of local votes. Jena
was also the former site of a notoriously brutal youth prison, which was closed
after years of lawsuits and negative media exposure. The prison is now
scheduled to be reopened as a private prison for the growth business of
immigrant detentions.
"The parish is
a major contributor to Republican politicians, and former klansman and
Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke received a solid majority of local
votes."
Three
hundred supporters, most from the immediate region, but some from as far away
as California, Chicago and New York, descended on Jena on July 31 to protest
District Attorney Reed Walters' conduct and call for dismissal of all charges.
The largest groups included Millions More Movement delegations from Houston,
Monroe and Shreveport, nearly fifty members of Families and Friends of
Louisiana's Incarcerated Children from Lake Charles and New Orleans. Other
delegations from across Louisiana included members of INCITE Women of Color
Against Violence, Critical Resistance, Common Ground and Malcolm X Grassroots
Movement. The demonstration marched through downtown Jena - reported to be the
biggest civil rights march the town of 2,500 residents has ever seen - and
delivered a petition with 43,000 signatures to the District Attorney's office.
In the two
weeks since the demonstration, more major allies have begun to come on board.
The Congressional Black Caucus, representing 43 members, including Senator
Barack Obama, issued a statement calling for charges to be dropped, while the
city of Cambridge Massachusetts passed a resolution in support of the families
of the Jena Six. Al Sharpton and other national leaders have visited Jena,
while Jesse Jackson called members of the state legislative Black caucus on
their behalf.
ColorOfChange.org, which has coordinated much of the
outside support, has gathered 60,000 signatures on a petition to Louisiana
Governor Blanco, calling for her to pardon the accused, and investigate
District Attorney Reed Walters.
Blanco, a Democratic governor elected with the
overwhelming support of Black residents of Louisiana, responded with a
condescending statement, tersely informing petitioners, "The State
Constitution provides for three branches of state government - Legislative, Executive,
and Judicial - and the Constitution prohibits anyone in one branch from
exercising the powers of anyone in another branch." This is the same
governor who, as Katrina approached, urged gulf coast residents to "pray
the hurricane down" to a level two. When New Orleans was flooded and
people were trapped in the New Orleans Superdome and convention center, she
informed the nation that she was sending in National Guard troops, and
"They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded. These troops know how to
shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they
will." More recently, Blanco created a program to bring federal money to
homeowners rebuilding after Katrina - the "Road Home" - that has been
a dismal failure on every level.
"The case of
Jena Six has served as a wake-up call on the state of US justice. It shows
vividly the racial bias still inherent to our system."
Mychal
Bell's sentencing is currently scheduled for September 20. The families are
planning another demonstration for that date, and also have assembled a legal
team for Bell and the other youths. National allies such as Southern Poverty
Law Center and NAACP joined initial supporters such as Friends of Justice (from
Tulia, Texas) and ACLU of Louisiana. Legal expenses for the youths could be
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and funding is still needed. Except for
Mychal Bell, who has a bail hearing scheduled for September 4, all of the
youths are out on bail.
The case of
Jena Six has served as a wake-up call on the state of US justice. It shows
vividly the racial bias still inherent to our system. But is has also shown
something else. That this group of families refuses to be silent in the face of
injustice, and that hundreds of thousands of other people around the world have
chosen to stand with them, and say that we are drawing the line, here, in Jena
Louisiana.
Jordan Flaherty is an
editor of Left Turn Magazine and a community organizer based in New Orleans. He
can be reached at: neworleans@leftturn.org.
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