Tipping the Scales of Justice in Jena
The tree at Jena High School has been cut down, but the furor around it has only grown.
“What did the tree do wrong?” asked Katrina Wallace, a stepsister of one of the Jena Six, when I interviewed her at the Burger Barn in Jena, La. “I planted it 14 years ago as a tree of knowledge.”
It all began at the start of the school year in 2006, at a school assembly, when Justin Purvis asked if he could sit under the schoolyard tree, a privilege unofficially reserved for white students. The next morning, three nooses were hanging from its broad, leafy branches.
African-American students protested, gathering under the tree. Soon after, the district attorney, Reed Walters, came to the school with the police, threatening, “I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.” Racial tensions mounted in this 85 percent white town of 4,000. In December, a schoolyard fight erupted, and the district attorney charged six African-American high school students, the soon to be dubbed Jena Six, with second-degree attempted murder.
I recently visited Billy “Bulldog” Fowler in his office. He’s a white member of the LaSalle Parish School Board. He says Jena is being unfairly painted as racist. He feels the hanging nooses were blown out of proportion, that in the high school setting it was more of a prank: “This is the Deep South, and [older] black people know the meaning of a noose. Let me tell you something-young people don’t.”
That night, I went to see the Baileys in their mobile home in Ward 10, one of the black neighborhoods in Jena. Two of the Jena Six, Robert Bailey and Theo Shaw, were ironing their clothes. I asked them what they thought when they saw the nooses. Robert immediately said: “The first thing came to mind was the KKK. I don’t know why, but that was the first thing that came to my head. I used to always think the KKK chase black people on horses, and they catch you with rope.”
Theo said he thought the students who hung the nooses “should have got expelled, cuz it wasn’t no prank. It was a threat.” School principal Scott Whitcomb thought the same. He recommended expulsion of those who hung the nooses, but the superintendent overruled him, imposing three days of suspension. Whitcomb resigned.
The African-American teens were dealt with differently. They were expelled, but appealed to the school board. The school district had conducted an investigation, but the school board was not allowed to review it. The school board’s lawyer was none other than the prosecuting district attorney, Reed Walters.
Board member Fowler recalls the January meeting: “Our legal authority that night was Mr. Walters.”
I asked, “And he told you, you couldn’t have access to the school proceedings, or the investigation?”
Fowler replied: “That’s right. [Walters said] it was a violation of something.” The board voted, without information. Fowler recalls: “It was unanimous. No, no it wasn’t. There was one board member who voted no, and that was Mr. Worthington.” Melvin Worthington, the only African-American on the school board, voted against upholding the expulsion of the black students.
Asked if he felt that Walters had a conflict of interest that night, Fowler replied, “Well, I’m assuming that Mr. Walters knows the law.”
Louisiana’s 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals doesn’t agree. The court just overturned Walters’ first conviction in the Jena Six case (by an all-white jury), that of Mychal Bell, ruling that he should have been tried as a juvenile. Walters pledges to challenge that ruling in the Louisiana Supreme Court, while continuing to pursue the other five prosecutions.
Bell remains in jail, where he has been since last December. Although yet to be tried, the others were jailed as well. Theo Shaw just got out earlier this summer. Imprisoned with adults who were maced repeatedly, Theo’s asthma was triggered, and he was hospitalized.
National organizations like the NAACP have called for a major march in Jena on Sept. 20, the day Bell was to be sentenced. Although his conviction has been overturned, the march will happen, with thousands expected.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate
“‘What did the tree do wrong?’ asked Katrina Wallace, a stepsister of one of the Jena Six, when I interviewed her at the Burger Barn in Jena, La. ‘I planted it 14 years ago as a tree of knowledge.’” My god, what poignancy.
“What”, indeed. This whole account, even in a world where evil is all too common, strikes me as almost incredibly horrific. It’s very hard to know what to say, except to ask, Where the hell is the US Department of Justice and the FBI?
Perhaps this country could do with a little “ethnic” cleansing of our own. Say we “cleanse” all the three toothed, frothing at the mouth, gun toting fools that have some bizarre idea they are better than others by accident of birth. It’d be a good start.
I blame the Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I & II, and all the rest in government who uphold their policies, for this racial hatred given social acceptance.
In many parts of the North, where there have been pockets of Mexican workers and their families, read young people, there have been house burnings and beatings, etc. as well.
And also to blame are all those “Christian” preachers who preach separation from all others.
I hope that the folks in Jena take a good long look at themselves, even if they didn’t actively participate in the injustice perpetrated on these young men. If you stand by silently, that is consent.
With so much war and even the seasons not keeping to the “norm” with global climate change, humanity is in a state of turmoil, and our leaders, religious, political, and others, are not leading wisely.
The corporate media has gone along with the hate mongers, and set up terrible role models, shouting ignorance and hate and intolerance. Rupert Murdoch must be laughing himself to sleep these days.
Its up to decent people to prove them all wrong, by standing up for peace and for justice. We must ask ourselves, “What have I done to bring about peace and justice today?”
From the content of the article most of the blame for this incident and it’s bad handling lies with Reed Walters, maybe this guy should be taken out of office before he sets the country aflame.
I hope that the “National organizations like the NAACP” who are marching in Jena on the 20th will sponser and encourage participation in the upcoming encampment and march in DC during the week of 22-29th, with the march on the 29th.
As Coyotita points out strains of the abhorant behavior of rascism remains in the highest levels of governmantal representation. To me this is exemplefied by Sen. Stevens who, at the hieght of the right wing Republican arrogance during the initial questions surrounding torture, stated there are “classified” people and “unclassified” people. And that, as in the case of the El Moetz massaqure by “graduates” of the SOA, it is okay to participate with one group of “classifieds” to murder a whole villiage of other “classifieds” in order to send a “message” to the surrounding population.
This is of course the same behavior that has caused the murder of over 1,000,000 Iraqi’s and the maiming of many more, as well as the displacement of 5,000,000, with little concern from the general public consciousness.
And it is why I call on the NAACP and any other organization of conscious and concerned citizens to join the Call To Impeach, and join the actions of encampment and march in DC, as well as unifying a focusing energy for invoking human sanity coalecing around October 27th.
In peace and love (and determination) - Call To Impeach!
The story of Jena six reinforces the reality of the status of the minorities in the US.
My question is: why can’t American government first clean up its own ASS, which is stinking, instead of trying to clean others around the world? First promote democracy in the US, uphold equal rights and equal justice for the minority communities.
FIRST REMOVE THE BIG LOG THAT IS STUCK IN YOUR OWN EYE!!!!
Was I just time-warped back to nineteen fifty something? “This is the Deep South,” so effing what! I honestly cannot believe I’m reading this article.
re deepa 12:35pm
it’s the stage magician’s art of misdirection—”look how much we’re commited to democracy over there (while we gut it like a striped bass over here.”)
Why are the major news programs ignoring this story? Why are some folks surprised by this event when votes were stolen from Black folks in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004, and who knows where else?
Are we living in a delusion that America is not a racist society? The legacy of colonialism and slavery still lives on the good ole’ USA.
Jena…Jena…Jena…Jenin…
http://www.rebelion.org/petras/english/jenin020502.htm
Reed Walters should have disbarment proceedings started against him. (So should Gonzales & Meiers for that matter). His malicious conduct and blantant conflict of interest without recusing himself desrve losing his livelihood.
The superintendant should be removed as well.
Where’s the Department of Justice? Ignoring voter suppression as part of rampant election fraud, electoral civil rights violations, intimidation and obstruction of voter registration and voting. Also, spying on Americans.
in their attack on the MOVE organization in philadelphia, local “law enforcement” dropped military-grade explosives on one house and succeeded in destroying 60 others on osage avenue, a predominantly black neighborhood. there were also fatalities, including some children.
if whites had been more visibly militant at the time, perhaps there wouldn’t have been similar state violence in waco and at ruby ridge soon thereafter.
solidarity or surrender!!
This is the fourth story in one day were someone rights have been violated.
The media needs to make a choice and make a choice now.
Show the American people and the world, what is happening to our rights immediately.
Don’t think for a second you will be spared when the Gov’t decides it’s time to lay down the iron fist.
And when you finally see that you can no long carry on with you daily routine because you TOO!!! Have lost your rights. It will be too late. For you and for us all.
The revolution is coming, choose your side.
~Future~
COYOTITO & HAZMAT: Good points.
There is one thing I have been wondering about this Jena situation. What charges, if any, were placed against the Euro-American students? They were involved in the fighting, too, and, it was their placing of the nooses that started the whole affair.
Yet, I have read/heard nothing about them.
The time has come. You know it, I know, the world knows it. Civil war will happen here, The revolution will be in our lifetime. And who side will we choose?
These are the moments that our people will talk about in books after our bones have long been buried in the sands of time.
These will be the moments in which we set ourselves apart from the sheep, and we stand. We stand for what is rightfully ours.
The war has begun, the trumpets have been blown.
We are brothers and sisters!!
This is our fight. There is only, us and the enemey.
There is no black, white, red, or yellow.
There are only the freemen and freewomen.
And then there are the oppressors.
US and them. There lives and ours.
We are one unit, we are one people. Feed your brother and your brother will feed you.
Starve for your brother and he will do the same.
Give drink to your brother, and he will quench your thirst.
Fight not amongest ourselves, but let us unite in what will be the defining moments of our lives.
There is no rich or poor. Only us and them.
No strong men and weak men. Only us and them.
Turn the other cheek for your brother but not for the enemy.
Turn the other cheek for your sister but not for the enemy.
I ask you not, as a leader of men, but as a brother in arms, a brother in spirit, a brother in pain. A brother in sacrifice and a brother to those that wish to remain free.
I ask you in this time of our greatest need for cohesiveness and bonds built with one goal.
And that goal is maintaining freedom.
Providing Freedom for our brothers and sisters. Maintaining what was given to us by those that died.
And what is being taken away from us by those that kill.
We are blind, but only have to open our eyes to see what we have been missing.
We are deaf and mute, but only need to focus our minds to hear the call, and open our mouths to speak the words that will save us from our selves.
We are not going to take it any more.
Say it to yourself, when you lay your head on your pillow.
Say it to yourself when you wake.
Say it to those you love.
Say it to those you hate.
For it is only us and them.
Say that you will not let your brothers starve alone, say you will not let your brothers go with out drink alone.
We are one people, we are one movement.
We are the revolution.
~Future~
Did anyone listen to Democracy Now this morning? I heard about half the show. It was dumbfounding.
Amy interviewed a school board member and coach from that school. He basically said the six should be “punished” for what they did. He went over what had happened making excuses for the whole thing. As far as I got, nothing at all was said about any kind of action taken at the school in regard to the students who hung the nooses. Nor did he condemn these students at all in his “explaining” the incident. Neither did he suggest of his own accord that these students should be punished as well.
He refered to the “nooses” as put there by white students who were being funny and “joking” around. Some joke. He more or less came out and said this “joking” was a relatively usual occurence! If this “noose” incident had happened in New Jersey and was responded to in that manner there’d be some heads rolling in that school district.
What incredible ignorance.
To see how pervasive racism is in my home state, please see the forums concerning this story at the monroe,la daily. http://forums.thenewsstar.com/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=520a65bbb742ac4d0b560a28542786e9
also a video on youtube from last year in monroe is at:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BhH_F2Y23X8
dcmdn — “I honestly cannot believe I’m reading this article.” I’m with you. That was my first, and continues to be my clearest, response. There is something if not uniquely than surely extraordinarily incredible about this, isn’t there? Perhaps most extraordinary is this, if true: “Soon after, the district attorney, Reed Walters, came to the school with the police, threatening, ‘I could end your lives with the stroke of a pen.’” Is it acknowledged by Walters that he made this statement? If not, does he acknowledge making ANY statement? If so, what? If he denies making the quoted statement, what is the evidence that he DID make the statement? And why in hell are DOJ, the FBI, and the attorney disciplinary committee of the Louisiana Supreme Court not asking these questions?
It’s only going to get worse.
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/unsanam2
louisianasocialist, I feel like I need a shower after reading some of the comments on your link. I did a brief scan and found a poll on the Iraq war and whether it was the right thing to do or if we should “cut and run” (the wording should have been a tip off lol) no surprise, the results were 81 percent in favor of this great war! Looks like the neanderthals in your state are every bit as ignorant as the ones in mine!
The question of race was the central issue in preventing the American people from achieving their goals in the Revolutionary War. Those goals, enshrined in our documents of the Revolution, were unattainable for the mass of white toilers while a quarter of the working class was in chains. The question of race was central to frustrating the popular aims of the Civil War. Before abandoning the goal of breaking the political back of the planters, the American people first had to abandon the vision, “And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.” Playing the race card did this.
The question of race was also the central issue that prevented the breakout of the union movement in the 1930’s and 40’s. There was no way to advance and secure the unions without organizing the South. The unions could not or would not take this step. The alternative was to create the conditions for the trade unions to become something akin to a labor front and an appendage of the State Department. Progressives and people of good will fought every step of the way, but the lack of understanding of the political rather than biological nature of the race question led to their defeat.
Some progressives hold to the idea that race is still the predominant factor. Others are dropping the question of race and declaring that today there is only the question of class. Race and racism are political weapons to facilitate class exploitation and should never be placed in opposition to class. It is not a question of either/or. Both factors are at play, and the question is which factor predominates under what circumstance and in which direction the general motion is going.
There has never been a complete separation of the workers according to color. The decline of the racial designation of work and the commonality of unemployment is creating opportunities for class solidarity on an entirely new level. Previously, what unity there was, was built around common problems in the shop. Today we can speak of building class unity – something far beyond workplace problems and in the arena of political struggle.
louisianasocialist
I just read some of the chat going on about this on one of your links. Lord this is really bad. If shit can go on like this, African american people must be really freaked out down there. What can it be like to deal with this kind of environment all the time? I think this really opened my eyes. It must be like being in prison to have to go school in an environment like this.
“Perhaps this country could do with a little “ethnic” cleansing of our own. Say we “cleanse” all the three toothed, frothing at the mouth, gun toting fools that have some bizarre idea they are better than others by accident of birth. It’d be a good start.”
Well, Kristina, I’m afraid that’s no better. While you hatefully stereotype rural whites, keep in mind that conservatives to the same to inner city blacks.
I’m angry at the cowards who committed these acts in Jena also for many reasons, some that even go beyond race. But you can’t let that hate engulf you.
And I don’t think they think they’re superior to anyone. Insecurity plays as much a role in this as anything.
Future.me and medic, good posts.
Again, working people and poor vs. working people and poor. The elites are lovin’ this.
What sickens me most is the possibility–no, the probability–that these six children will spend years, if not the rest of their lives–in a Louisiana prison. A charge of second degree attempted murder is no laughing matter! I have to admit I feel helpless–what can be done to stop this? There will be no such thing as a fair trial for them by a jury of their peers. These children are facing years and years of prison time because of the color of their skin! Can we as Americans sit back and let the justice system be used this way? Sadly I’m afraid we have, we can, and we will. America the Land of the Free is nothing but an oxymoron.
Amy Goodman, has done more to further the cause of the “Jena Six” than all of the Democratic Presidential Candidates combine.
This is fucked up. The nooses were wrong, but the beating was worse. If the kid was beat unconsious as was stated in some reports, it was a serious beating. The kids who did it probably don’t deserve 15 years in jail, but they might deserve 1 or 2. Again, there is no comparison between the nooses and a beating, even with the history.
From “Shining City on the hill” illusions of redneck amerikan global supremacy akin to the NAZI ravings of that particular aryan sub-human class, here is the real amerika and it’s worse than what Martin King faced. It has become more devious and more righteous as we see whitey’s Shanty Town on the wrong side of the tracks for what it really is; a nation at odds with the rest of humanity as much as it is with its minorities and disadvantaged under classes living in fear in apartheid amerika. No wonder Israel is the offspring and soulmate of racist amerika.
Forget your hallucinations of “exceptionalism” and the “chosen race” pap spread by your chosen race alpha “culture” at the heart of your propaganda “media” droning from the communal loudspeakers. Deep down amerika you are a parochial and ignorant bunch of hicks too disposed to stringing a noose and wallowing in the blood of your innocent victims. Cure that perverse innate Bate’s Motel streak that twists through the very soul of the nation before it leads you to certain doom.
Choose healing, amerika, seek therapy because the next lynching just might be your global neighbors deciding they have enough of your violence, arrogance and ingrained ignorance; something that happened to that other “exceptional” nation, Mr. Hitler’s deluded Germany.
“The nooses were wrong, but the beating was worse. If the kid was beat unconsious as was stated in some reports, it was a serious beating.”
I agree twistoflex. Also, everyone here has neglected to even mention that Mychal Bell has about 3 prior felonies from what I understand. This is no innocent school child….
iwarrior, I didn’t mention rural whites, I mentioned people that thought they were better than others by accident of birth, now if that happens to engulf rural whites then so be it, as well as anyone else that thinks the same. These people are ignorant beyond compare and personally I wouldn’t miss them.
“Americans have fought, toiled, and died to create this land”
Uhm, dunno what history book you are using but we murdered people and stole this land, WE didn’t create shit, get over yourself. Also, this country was built on the backs of SLAVE labor, you have permission to stick your head back up your ass now.
Now so far as forcing our personal, individual, cultural blah blah needs onto the whole country, perhaps you should remind the evangelical wing nuts of this…
There were six ARMED cops on one student a UF the other day, was that attempted murder? Why were the three white kids that beat up a black kid given a slap on the wrist then? Is the cut-off six? Or is the cutoff black?
Also, two black kids were accosted by a white man with a sawed off shotgun, the kids managed to wrestle the gun away and ran, no charges were brought and the gun was returned to the white man. Does this sound like justice to anyone?
The FACT of the matter is, Blacks are consistently given much longer sentences than whites for the same crimes.
I would expect no less eloquent an answer from an obviously mentally challenged individual.
Is that the best YOU can do? Now I feel bad for making fun of you.
I see we have an ugly little troll, stalking and bobbing and living up to all the racist, sexist ignorant stereotypes with pride and gusto.
I’m sorry, I failed to notice your “making fun” of me. Perhaps your attempt failed? It appeared to me as more nationlist ranting and I surely didn’t notice any questions to be answered or points to be addressed, just petty schoolyard insults. The question should be, Is that the best you can do?
Yes, so it would seem Vern. I see his original post has been changed and is now just a double post of his third grade insults. His first post was truly pathetic, I suppose that is why he changed it LOL
The story of the Jena Six proves that racism is still very much alive in American society. Cutting down the tree at Jena High School does nothing but feed into our society’s futile efforts to mask the realities of the racism that is still prevalent today. It is a lie to try to say that we have successfully done away with racism when it is still an accepted way of life in many places throughout the country, but particularly in the south. In the 85 percent white town where Jena High School is located the site of a noose still brings back memories of pain and oppression; therefore, when high school aged individuals hang them, it is not okay for their actions to be passed off as a simple prank, and anyone with the least bit of decency knows it.
People in positions of power continually abuse it just as District Attorney Reed Walters has done in the case of the Jena Six. By not allowing the school board to review the reasons for the expulsion of the black students, and by being allowed to direct undoubtedly racist based threats at the students Reed abuses his authority. It is sad to think that racism will never be eradicated from our society.
Mychal Bell
Article about his past violent crimes
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070825/NEWS03/708250353/1062/NEWS03
Kristina, Vern, all, thank MTV for giving you the image of Beavis and yes BUTTHEAD!!
Each time you hear ol dq(dumbness Quotient) speaking. When he thinks he is “making fun of you” that laugh; heh heh heh heh, thats him!!! Picture those two, and his president too!!!!!
Sad huh?
Another incident ot prove the constitution is no good, as the decider said”just a g– d— piece of paper”.
What the three teenage boys, who were not alive in the days of Jim Crow, did in Jena was foolish to say the least, ill-conceived, immature, perhaps criminal. What the Jena Six did was to beat one boy into unconsciouness. Eye witnesses say one of them stood on his head even after he was unconscious; others continued to kick him even after he’d lost consciousness.
Let’s say the races get reversed. What do you suppose our African American leaders would be saying if six white boys had beaten an African American boy into unconsciousness, stood on his head, and continued to kick him after he’d lost consciouness?
They’d be calling for life without possibility of parole. Thugs are thugs no matter the race. The Jena Six are thugs. The Deep South has by and large faced down the ghosts of its past. Not entirely; but by and large. I wish the rest of the US would do the same. There’s a reason the current African American migration is to the South, not away from it.