Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Jena yesterday, preaching a message of reconciliation. In a four-minute clip provided by the CBS affiliate in
Alexandria, La., (http://www.kalb.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KALB/MGArticle/ALB_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352689717&path=!frontpage) Jackson remarked that a fight between children has escalated into a fight between parents.
Jackson isn’t saying that Jena 6 supporters have skewed the issues or overstated their claims; he’s just reframing the issue.
Friends of Justice brings cases like Tulia, Texas and Jena, Louisiana to the attention of the world because we want to change the way the average American thinks about issues like poverty, race, and the criminal justice system. We are trying to create a fundamental shift in the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, just as profound as the shift to a tough-on-crime mentality that followed in the wake of the civil rights movement.
We don’t want the fight for justice in Jena to devolve into another unresolved skirmish in America’s culture war. We want Jena to become a
mirror for contemporary America; an egregious example of business as usual.
Some of you might be a bit surprised by my bold statement that Friends of Justice brought the plight of the Jena 6 to the attention of the world. After all, our organization is rarely mentioned in the media coverage. But it’s true: the Jena 6 would be on their own without the intervention of Friends of Justice.
In fact, Friends of Justice has broken the two biggest criminal justice horror stories of the past decade (Tulia was the first).
We are successful because we know how to take a case shrouded in utter obscurity and gradually build it into a story with a life of its own. In
Jena that meant two months of grassroots organizing before a heroic young woman named Tory Pegram with the La. ACLU came to our assistance. Tory has traveled to Jena on over a dozen occasions, gradually earning the trust of the affected community. Then King Downing, a gifted organizer with the ACLU’s national Police Accountability Project, got involved. For months it was Alan Bean, Tory Pegram, King Downing, and Jena stalwarts like Caseptla Bailey, Tina Jones and Catrina Wallace who kept the fight going when the only media outlet willing to cover the story was Tony Brown’s Eyes Wide Open radio show in nearby Alexandria.
Friends of Justice fed the story to the national media, beginning with Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune and Tom Mangold of the British
Broadcasting Corporation. That coverage led to the steadily growing interest of CNN. Tory Pegram contacted New Orleans law professor Bill
Quigley and Jordan Flaherty of Left Turn Magazine, the two men who introduced Jena and its “White Tree” to the blogosphere. That’s where Amy Goodman of Democracy Now picked up the story with amazing results.
Sherrell Wheeler Stewart of BlackAmericanWeb.com (the author of the piece below) was one of the first members of the independent media to pick up on the Jena story. Sherrel has been particularly helpful in bringing the Jena 6 saga to the attention of the civil rights community, including Jesse Jackson.
As I say, this story has now taken on a life of its own. I recently got an email update from a woman from Rochester, New York who is working on a Jena documentary. She told me she was coming out of a movie theatre when she saw an old woman passing out “Free the Jena 6” leaflets that she had produced herself. Similar scenes are unfolding across America. The other night several thousand students crammed into an auditorium at Howard University for a Jena 6 rally. In ten days, thousands of people will be descending on little Jena Louisiana from every corner of America.
For what?
What’s the message?
Are we traveling to Jena to bash America’s last outpost of Jim Crow racism? Or are we traveling to Jena to draw the attention of the nation to a particularly awful example of what’s wrong with the American criminal justice system?
What’s the message? America hates Jena; or America is Jena?
Friends of Justice doesn’t hate Jena and neither should you. I have made fifteen trips to this little Central Louisiana town and I like the
people–black and white. I have seen white people (even in the midst of the current tension) wander over to a black friend and wrap them in a
spontaneous bear hug. Does that anecdotal snippet mean that Jena has no problem with racism? Not at all. It simply means that Jena is a normal little Southern town trying to find its way out of an ancient swamp of bigotry that clings to everything in the South like moss clings to the trees. Some folks have come a long way. Others, obviously, have not. But Jena is America, and anyone who doesn’t understand that should stay home on September 20th.
It warms my heart to hear Jesse Jackson talking about reconciliation. Probably, as Jena pastor Eddie Thompson recently told National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14234434), the legal issues will have to be resolved before much progress can be made in this arena. But we must remember that the Jena 6 and their loved ones have to
live in Jena when the events of September 20th are over and everyone has gone home. I know what they are living with because I lived in Tulia, Texas in the middle of a strikingly similar “town divided” scenario. It can be agonizing. For everyone–white and black.
Frankly, I don’t have the stature to stage the kind of dialogue that Jena desperately needs right about now. None of the pastors in Jena, white or black, can make the conversation begin, and they know it. But Rev. Jackson just might have a shot. God bless him for trying.
______________
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/jenasix910
Rev. Jesse Jackson Meets with Jena Six’s Mychal Bell in Jail, Says ‘The
World is Watching’
Date: Monday, September 10, 2007
By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com, and Associated Press
Calls for justice in Jena, Louisiana continued Sunday with the Rev. Jesse
Jackson leader of Rainbow/PUSH visiting the town, rocked for more than a
year now by racial tension.
Six black youths called the Jena Six have faced criminal charges and the
possibility of spending up to 22 years in jail in connection with a fight
with a white student at Jena High School on Dec. 4.
Jackson met with Mychal Bell, 17, who has been convicted and jailed in
connection with the incident.
The civil rights leader said he met with the LaSalle Parish sheriff on
Sunday and had hopes of meeting with LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed
Walters and the judge on the case. He said he plans to meet Monday meeting
with area ministers and leaders to discuss strategy.
“American justice is on trial in Jena. The world is watching,” Jackson told
BlackAmericaWeb.com. “The more outside pressure is applied, the greater the
impact.”
Also on Sunday, the Rev. Al Sharpton called for an investigation of Walters.
In a telephone interview from New York, Sharpton also said he would join
thousands of people in Jena on Thursday, Sept. 20 — the day Bell is
scheduled to be sentenced on an aggravated second-degree battery conviction.
“After that, if we need to, we’ll go to Baton Rouge and see the governor and
the Legislature,” Sharpton said.
Sharpton said he wants the state attorney general and judicial oversight
agencies to investigate Walters’actions.
James Rucker of Color of Change said that organization collected 43,000
signatures in its first round of petitions and submitted them to Gov.
Kathleen Blanco in August.
“She responded, but basically told us that she could do nothing because of
the separation of powers,” Rucker told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “There is
injustice in Louisiana, and when she stands by it, she needs to know how
that looks. It looks like she is condoning a Jim Crow system of justice.”
The California-based civil rights advocacy group has now collected 150,000
signatures and plans to also submit those to the governor. “People around
the country are watching what happens in Jena,” Rucker said.
Jackson and other civil rights leaders say officials in Jena have used a
dual system of justice to handle incidents in a town already divided along
racial lines.
In Jena on Sunday, Jackson urged residents to come together to demand equal
justice.
“Why be fighting when we can turn to each other and find common ground?”
Jackson said. “Jena is too small not to move together.”
Shortly after the school year began last year, black students sat under a
tree used as a gathering spot for whites. The next day, three nooses were
hanging from that tree.
The tree was cut down earlier this summer, but not before months of tension.
The three white youths who hung the nooses were suspended from school a few
days. In another incident, students say Robert Bailey, a black student, was
attacked by five or six white youths whom he identified. Police would only
accept the name of one as the suspect, Jackson said.
Bond for the Jena Six has been set as high as $130,000 in some cases,
Jackson said. None of the boys have prior police records.
“The amount of their bonds has been greater than their ability to pay.
Parents have had to put up their property,” he said. And although the six
youths were jailed, police never produced an incident report, claimed
Jackson.
“We are working diligently with a coalition to get the charges against all
of the young men dropped and to get Mychal Bell out of jail,” Jackson said.
“These young men should be free to finish school and go on with their
lives.”
The parents of Justin Barker, the boy who was allegedly beaten, have said
the fight amounted to attempted murder. Barker went to the hospital, was
released the same day and attended a ring ceremony that evening.
Prosecutor Walters has argued that the accused youths deserve serious
punishment for their crime.
Bell has one year of high school remaining. He was a standout high school
football player last season and was considered a college prospect before the
incident changed the course of his life.
Meanwhile, the legal costs for the young men continue to mount, but funds
are coming in from around the country, Rucker said.
Color of Change has raised more than $100,000 for legal defense, he said.
Another Jena Six defense fund has also been successful, leaders and family
members said.
But there has been some misunderstanding regarding the flow of money from
the funds to the lawyers doing the work, according to reports.
Louis Scott, the attorney representing Bell, began working on that case pro
bono, and had not received any of the donated money for legal fees. Scott
took the case, he says, because Bell’s family asked him to do it, and some
ministers and friends began collecting funds to help with some of the costs.
Rucker said because contributors to the fund expect the organization to be
accountable, they had to put in place a procedure for paying attorneys,
while allowing the parents of the youths to maintain input in the process.
Scott began working on Bell’s case before he knew that other funds would be
available.
“The important thing here is that we do everything we can to get justice for
Mychal Bell,” Scott said, “and for all of the young men.”
Friends of Justice 
Alan,
It seems, as I read this post, we were of the same mind today!
I’ve been closely following the crescendo of support for the Jena 6 on Black talk radio since the story began receiving more and more exposure. Today for some reason, knowing I’d read this story back in May of this year, I felt compelled to call Rev. Sharpton’s show as well as email Michael Baisden to make them aware of the hard-working catalyst that provided the impetus for the momentous occasion to occur on Sept. 20th. Below is a copy of my email and Mr. Baisden’s prompt reply:
===============================================================
—–Original Message—–
Sent: Sep 10, 2007 : 06:15:28 PM
Subject: Name of Bell’s court-appointed attorney
Hey Michael,
First of all let me say that I will be in Jena on the 20th! I am a female, driving in alone from S. Florida and fear is the furthest thing from my mind! I am the mother of two sons 23 and 26. Having been born and raised in Charleston, SC myself (yes George, I DID drink from the COLORED water fountains of Charleston!) and having raised them in San Antonio, TX during their most formative years, I know all too well the importance of standing up for these six young men in Jena.
You asked earlier today the name of young Mr. Bell’s court-appointed attorney. The brother’s name is Blane Williams. I also want to turn you on to the Friends of Justice website (https://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com) because this group has been involved with the Jena 6 from the very beginning. Alan Bean, the group’s Executive Director, has a wealth of background information. He actually broke the story to the Chicago Tribune and the BBC back in December of 2006! As a result, in May 2007, the BBC broadcasted a documentary in ENGLAND, entitled, “This World-Race Hate in Louisiana.” This story is a continuation of America’s shame Michael. As you will see from the early entries on Friends of Justice blog, the WORLD knew about Jena a long time ago. When I found the story in May of ’07, all I felt I could do was tell people about it. I thank you and all the other groups who have mobilized the masses and are providing an opportunity for people like me to really DO something about it.
One quick question. I’m staying in Alexandria as most people will. Are there provisions to join with a group to go to the Jena courthouse or can I just drive my car behind the caravan of buses? I asked the question today on Rev. Sharpton’s show but his guest advised that is yet to be determined on their end. Any information you may have regarding this will be appreciated. I just like to have a plan in advance or know where to get the information when I’m fending for myself.
Hope to hear from you or yours soon.
Date Sep 10, 2007 : 06:24:36 PM
Subject RE: Name of Bell’s court-appointed attorney
Message
I appreciate the info, I am currently working on the details of individual cars. I will make an announcement tomorrow. Regarding the organization that broke the story, I will have my producers reach out to have someone on who can give us the background from when the story broke.
Thank you so much for reaching out
MB
===============================================================
So, just as I have thanked Mr. Baisden and all the other groups for mobilizing the masses, let me say a GREAT BIG THANKS to you. Were it not for the dogged determination of the Friends of Justice, the Jena 6 may well have been out there on their own with no radio, television or print coverage and certainly no hope of being treated fairly by a local judicial system so deeply entrenched in that “ancient swamp of bigotry that clings to everything in the South like moss clings to the trees!”
I look forward to hearing you lay out the facts of this case on the Michael Baisden Show very soon and I hope to meet you in Jena on the 20th!
Deb:
I’m not sure how to take Mr. Baisden’s response, but thank you so much for reaching out. First-responder organizations like Friends of Justice must live with two simple and disheartening facts: 1. when a case is obscure, hardly anyone (including the media, lawyers, and civil rights advocates) gives a damn; and 2. When a case gets big, everybody wants a piece of it, even if they have to push the first-responders off the page to get it.
There are blessed exceptions to Rule 1 (in this case, Tory Pegram and King Downing of the ACLU). Generally (and tragically) it’s easier to get the media interested than it is to bring civil rights advocates and attorneys on board. In the Jena story, bloggers and independent media people helped fill the gap when folks like NBC and the New York Times proved indifferent.
But now that the story is big, big, big everybody is trying out for the Savior role. I may sound cynical, but I learned long ago that if you can’t work with these two basic facts you can’t do what Friends of Justice does. Bottom line: we can’t do it all ourselves.
One reason for Rule 1, by the way, is that everybody wants to get a lot of bang for the buck. If folks are going to invest time and money in getting behind a cause they want to see a reasonable chance of success. Back in December of 2006 when Friends of Justice was first contacted by the Jena 6 families, things were as bleak as bleak can be.
Friends of Justice is successful because we know how to frame a story for the media and the advocacy community. On the other hand, there is no reason why other civil rights and civil liberties organizations couldn’t do what we do–they just choose not to for reasons I will explain in another post.
Dearest Michael!
God bless you, George and the rest of your show for the important and NECESSARY coverage of this Jena Six tragedy. I listened to your show yesterday and was somewhat dismayed by how quickly misinformed individuals were willing to speak out against something they knew nothing about. (Any time we try to make progress, misinformed individuals try to hold us back. How many people thought perhaps Rosa Parks should have just stood up? How many people thought Dr. King should have just kept quiet?) But I say with certaintly: It’s Jena today, but if we don’t do something, it will be our hometown tomorrow. The mere fact that it happened ANYWHERE IN 2007 is a slap in all of our faces. We have definately fallen asleep at the wheel of equal rights, and now all of the progress that our brothers and sisters made in the sixties is being slowly taken away from us. We are having to start all over. Can you belive we are protesting nooses??? TODAY????
I am teaching my 12 year old daughter, just like my mother taught me, that there is an entire world out here. Everything is not just about “the individual”. Shame on those who are able to speak out against injustice and simply choose not to! Personally, I would not be able to live with myself if I did not get on that bus in Hammond Indiana and head to Jena. I have always wished that I could have marched in the sixties. I talk about all the things I would have participated in to make a change. And now I have that opportunity, to actually walk the walk!
And for the Jena Six and their families… when I think about the hell they have had to endure over this past year, my heart literally breaks. These children should be getting ready for the prom, not for trial! But Michael, I want you to do me a big favor. I am OLD SCHOOL, so I want you to dig in that vault, and I want you to find Sam and Dave: Hold on, I’m coming” and I want you to play it for the Jena Six and their families. Let them all know that WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!!! AND EVRYTHANG IS EVRYTHANG!!!!
Patricia Hollis
Prayer and meditation will guide us to do the right thing. I want to write to the Judge and DA in this case and have my scholars send letters as well. I have trouble finding the correct addresses and names to write to . Please post the actual snail mail addresses so that I along with my students can send letters of protest to the appropriate officials.
Please keep up the pressure. there are more websites appearing everyday with info about Jena 6. This is wonderful. Perhaps the media willstop being so quiet about what’s going on or have egg on its face that the world found out what was happening. The media is being made to look even more racist than the DA/Judge in Jena with its silence on the subject. If I knew a million plus folks were getting ready to descend on a sleepy little town inthe middle of Louisiana, this would make some headlines. should the judge deliver a ridiculous sentence, what are f olks planning on doing? What is the fall back position here? How does one deal with the anger and disappointment? Remember it is an election year. I hope everyone is registered and prepared to show their anger and disappointment by voting these racist fools out of office — from the dog catcher to the governor. Everyone not pulling their weight to see racism deaded and justice prevailing has got to go. that simple.
I am white, 58 years old, and have been an advocate for equal rights, justice and peace for ten years now and have begun to see myself as a virtual non-entity for all the apparent good it has done. This incident in Jena is an opportunity for many of us to finally express all the pent-up emotion and unresolved anxiety we have grown up with since the great strides that were made in the fifties and sixties. We all know the underlying racism and prejudice in this country needs desperately to be addressed. Let’s all join in bringing the plight of this struggling town and it’s people into the light so the world can see that we CAN BE one nation, with liberty and justice for all. Anyone wishing to rideshare from the Spokane, Washington area for this event please contact me through the Spokane NAACP. Sincerely, Chucky Moreland.
Alan,
Your cynicism is duly noted and more than understood. Having been a part of a grassroots movement that started with five people and mushroomed into a landslide victory to amend a city’s charter requiring the formation and funding of an oversight board for that city’s police department whose longstanding racism and biased shelling out of justice wreaked havoc on its tiny Black community, I do understand how it starts and how it ends. That being said however, the experience in and of itself was one of the most empowering I have ever had in my life as a Black woman.
Your “two rules” are an indication that you understand how it begins and how it ends as well, but I have to add a caveat to Rule 1. – a LOT of people give a damn but have no idea how to go about making a difference. And as to Rule 2, I’m right there with you on that. There’s a huge need to get stroked in America, no matter the race. In my opinion, we’re more often than not, a people, who crave the approval and acceptance of others and have to get the credit for what we’ve done. Good? Bad? You make the call.
Like your situation, there was a blessed exception to Rule 1 in my case as well – me! I was afforded the opportunity to have my own Opinion Page column every Saturday and since I had no formal journalism training, I could talk about what I wanted and plead journalistic ignorance if I was accused of being “part of the story” or being a little too partial. The best of both worlds! Not sure if it’s easier to get the media interested than it is to bring civil rights advocates and attorneys on board. Depends on which media outlets you pursue and how much they personally believe in the story being a story.
I for one, along with at least the wrongfully Tulia accused and the Jena 6, am so happy that you learned long ago that if you can’t work with those two basic facts you can’t do what Friends of Justice does AND that you get the bottom line that Friend of Justice can’t do it all themselves. Because first, who would know about either and from where would the impetus come??? Secondly, honestly recognizing the fact that you can’t do it alone is big. Recognizing limitations and adjusting for something larger than you is the reason big things happen. If we’re honest, the huge mobilization of the masses that has happened in the wake of the awareness Friends of Justice provided would not, no COULD not, have happened if other’s hadn’t gotten involved. That’s what makes what you guys do so important. Getting or not getting the credit is, hard, but you MUST understand how small it is compared to the very hard work that produced RESULTS and the empowerment it brought allowing more GREAT things to happen. That’s how I see it anyway (takes the sting out at least!)
Knowing your strengths guarantees longevity I always say. That the Friends of Justice is successful because they know how to frame a story for the media and the advocacy community ensures they will be able to continue to make a difference long after all the “pomp and circumstance” is done – if that’s your ultimate goal. Whether or not other civil rights and civil liberties organizations could do what you do but they just choose not to is arguable. But why argue? Just keep doing what you do and those who know the truth will speak it.
Keep your head up!
9=12-07
Any buses leaving from Boston? Please email me.
Deb or any other visitor to this site:
I am a white female that lives in San Antonio, TX but is from Monroe, LA so I feel very emotional about this injustice. I’ve been researching many mass drives to Jena, but have found none from San Antonio, so if anybody is driving to Jena from San Antonio, or know of a group that is driving, I would love to join. I would drive myself except my car wouldn’t even make it to Austin. Here’s my email: soccerkewlchic@aol.com
(Don’t speculate about my email, I made it when I was 12 and now I’m 20, time for a change eh?)