United Methodist Women Division just released this statement, joining call for justice in Jena, La.

The Women*s Division urges Louisiana and U.S. officials to intervene inracially charged criminal prosecution of six black students in Jena, La.

by YVETTE MOORE*

Sept. 20, 2007, New York City * The  Women*s Division joined
nationwide calls for equal justice for six black students facing
criminal prosecution in the wake of racially charged events at their
high school in Jena, La.

The students, known as the *Jena 6,* were charged as adults for
attempted murder for beating up a white student at school after a series
of racial incidents at and around the school. The white student was
treated and released from the hospital the day of the fight and attended
a school function the same evening.

Women*s Division issued a statement on the case and sent letters
urging Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana Attorney
General Charles Foti and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of
Louisiana Donald Washington to intervene in the case. The letters called
on the government officials to:

*    Investigate and monitor the criminal cases against the youth;
*    Guarantee the youths* constitutional right to fair and equal
treatment under the law; and
*    Pursue justice in the situation.

The division called on United Methodist Women members to send similar
letters to Louisiana and other government officials. The division asked
members to pray for the Jena community, in particular:

*    The six young men, their families, and that they gain justice;
*    For justice, healing and reconciliation for all the families of
Jena;
*    For the faith community of Jena and of Louisiana, that they
might continue efforts to bridge the racial divide and witness to
God*s work of justice and mercy in the world;
*    For our nation to mend a failed criminal justice system that
incarcerates black men at alarming rates in an unequal application of
the law.

*What is happening in Jena is the reflection of much deeper
institutional racism in our nation,* the Women*s Division stated.
*Fifty years after the gains of the Civil Rights Movement we are
witnessing a *new Jim Crow* racism that functions through unequal
schools, courts and police forces that disproportionately criminalize
and jail poor young black and Latino youth.

*Like our Methodist foremothers whose local missionary societies led
the Southern anti-lynching societies and created the United Methodist
Church*s first Charter for Racial Justice Policies in 1952, we are
compelled to speak out about what Jena, La., means for us as a nation
today.*

The Women*s Division is the national policy-making body of United
Methodist Women, a nearly 800,000-member organization in the United
Methodist Church in the United States. Its purpose is to foster
spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. United
Methodist Women members give more than $20 million a year for programs
and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States
and around the world.

*Yvette Moore is an executive secretary for communications for the
Women*s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global
Ministries.