Marchers demand: 'Stop the Jena-cide!'

More than 300 people rallied on the lawn of the La Salle Parish Courthouse here on July 31, demanding that all charges be dropped against the Jena Six. Speakers condemned the double standard of justice for Blacks and whites in Jena.

Tina Jones, Mother of Jena Six defendant Bryant Purvis with Sister Krystal Muhammad, leader of the New Black Panther Party in New Orleans. WW photo: Gloria Rubac

Activists from all around Louisiana and across the South traveled in car caravans, on buses and in airplanes to arrive in Jena for the 9 a.m. rally. They came from Florida and Atlanta, Natchez and Jackson, Houston, Dallas and Tulia. But they also came from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York to show their solidarity with the Jena Six.

The Jena Six are African-American youth facing up to life in prison for a schoolyard fight against a white youth last December. Five of the six African-American high school students are 16 and 17 years old. One is 18.

When school started last fall, a Black student asked the principal during an assembly if the Black students could sit under “the white tree” during lunchtime. He was told to sit where he wanted. The next day three nooses were hung from the tree. The principal expelled the three white students but was overruled by the superintendent who called it a “prank” and instead gave the boys a three-day suspension.

When almost all of the Black students protested by standing under the tree, the district attorney came to the school and during an assembly looked at the Black students and told them that the protests should stop or “I can end your lives with one stroke of my pen.”

Mychal Bell, 16 years old, was the first of the Jena Six to go to trial. He was certified as an adult and had a court appointed attorney who didn’t call any witnesses. He was convicted by an all-white jury, before a white judge. Bell was to have been sentenced on July 31. This was postponed until Sept. 20.

The July 31 rally crowd was mostly African-American. Minister Deric Muhammad with the Millions More Movement in Houston fired up the crowd with demands for justice. Sister Krystal Muhammad and the Rev. Raymond Brown spoke for the New Black Panther Party in New Orleans, vowing that the Panthers would support the Jena Six until all of them were free. Other speakers were from the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund in New Orleans and from FFLIC, Family and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children in Lake Charles.

The front entrance to the courthouse was lined with uniformed police officers. But the families of the Jena Six and community leaders walked through them to deliver 45,000 signed petitions to District Attorney Reed Walters, asking him to drop the charges.

Then the protestors marched through downtown Jena, chanting “Stop the Jena-cide!”

Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, spoke at the rally and thanked everyone for coming to Jena.

Two mothers of the Jena Six also spoke. Tina Jones, mother of Bryant Purvis, said that the sea of faces in the crowd gave her strength. And Caseptla Bailey, mother of Robert Bailey, has spoken out for her son and also founded a chapter of the NAACP in Jena after the six youth were arrested.

The case of the Jena Six is a stark reminder that Jim Crow justice and hate-filled racism are alive in rural Louisiana. But Louisiana isn’t unique. In so many small towns across the South, Ku Klux Klan rallies and cross burnings aren’t as frequent as they were 50 years ago. But the racism has been passed down to younger generations, and it has become institutionalized.

From the cops to the courts to the prisons, there is a two-tier system of justice: one for whites and another for people of color—particularly African-American males.

Support for the Jena Six is growing. Their families are strong. National and international media have picked up their story. A defense committee has formed and is meeting regularly. A Web site is up. Lawyers have come forward to take the cases. The Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP have asked that the charges be dropped.

And progressive activists from all across the South who rallied and marched on July 31 have vowed to return to Jena on Sept. 20 for Mychal Bell’s sentencing and to continue to promise Jena officials: “No justice, no peace!”

www.FreetheJena6.org