Friends of Justice first encountered Kathy Clay-Little in 2002, when Nancy
and Alan Bean, Freddie Brookins Sr. and Thelma Johnson traveled to San
Antonio for a police accountability conference. King Downing of the ACLU,
one of the grassroots organizers currently allied with Friends of Justice in
Jena, was the keynote speaker at the event. Kathy has been on my email list
ever since and occasionally mentions our activities in her column and on her
African-American Reflections radio program. She spent over an hour on the
phone with Nancy and our daughter Lydia in preparation for this excellent
column.

Alan Bean
Friends of Justice
(806) 995-3353
(806) 729-7889
https://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/
_________________________________

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/kclaylittle/stories/MYSA07020
7.02O.claylittle.2725477.html
Kathy Clay-Little <../storyindex.html>

New Jim Crow appears to be tougher than ever
Web Posted: 07/02/2007 12:00 AM CDT

San Antonio Express-News

Before July 1999, when they became involved in uncovering the Tulia scandal,
Nancy and Alan Bean believed as most white people do: The justice system
works as it is supposed to.
However, after seeing the justice system at work in Tulia and other parts of
the country through their Friends of Justice organization, they now believe
it is a broken system that perpetuates the new Jim Crow by getting rid of
people whom many don’t want included in America’s citizenship.

On the day I called to talk to Alan for this column, he was in Jena, La.,
rallying with the families of the Jena 6 – a group of black high school
students facing years in prison for their part in a series of incidents
involving escalating racial tensions in Jena.

It began last September when black students, wanting to be considered equal,
asked an administrator at the town’s high school if they could sit under a
tree considered to be the province of white students.

The administrator, apparently believing that the Civil Rights Act of 1964
was successful in changing the hearts and minds of people, assured them they
were free to sit anywhere they wanted. They sat under the tree.

The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree. To blacks in the town
where the social and economic divide is based upon race, the message was:
‘N—–s, stay in your place.”

Although the school’s principal pushed for the students who hanged the
nooses to be expelled, the school board decided the nooses had something to
do with a scene from the movie “Lonesome Dove.” Therefore, the only
punishment was a few days of in-school suspension.

Since then, a black student who walked into a dance hall considered to be
“white” was attacked by a mob of white students. Also, a white Jena High
School graduate with a pump-action shotgun accosted a group of black
students leaving a convenience store a few days later.

The only legal action resulting from the two attacks was a charge of simple
assault against one man in the mob beating.

On Dec. 4, a group of black students got into a fight with a white student.
The white student was knocked down, kicked and stomped.

This time, the district attorney filed charges of attempted second-degree
murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, which carry prison
sentences of up to 80 years, against the black students, including the
victim of the dance hall beating.

On Thursday, Mykal Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted of aggravated
second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree
battery in the case. The district attorney creatively and successfully
argued to the all-white jury that Bell’s tennis shoes were a weapon.

Bell could have taken a plea with a suspended sentence, but he wanted his
day in court.

Unfortunately, his court-appointed attorney mounted absolutely no defense.
Prior to the trial, they had never spoken, according to Bean.

The Beans believe fighting the new Jim Crow is harder than fighting the old
Jim Crow. While the old Jim Crow fight was against laws that excluded black
people from full American citizenship, the new Jim Crow fight is against the
mind-set that certain groups are dangerous, underclass people who deserve to
be locked away and that selective compassion doesn’t extend to young black
men.

The new Jim Crow was at work when a white kid who instigated a mob attack on
a black kid was charged with simple battery and the rest of the mob was not
charged while black kids involved in a similar attack on a white kid are
facing decades-long prison sentences.

It is working as well today as the old Jim Crow worked in decades past. Just
look under the tree at Jena High School.
_________________________________________________________

Kathy Clay-Little is publisher of African-American Reflections, online at
aareflections.com.