Across the nation, young activists who organized bus trips to Jena on September 20th are finding creative ways to keep the momentum alive. In the Dallas Fort Worth area, a group called Equal Justice has emerged under the leadership of a gifted young woman named Ki-Afi Moyo. Friends of Justice is cooperating with this coalition of concerned organizations. Alan Bean was one of a dozen local leaders to address the meeting described in this Fort Worth Star-Telegram article.
Posted on Sun, Oct. 14, 2007
Activists aim to harness Jena’s momentum
Star-Telegram staff writer
We’re not done yet.
That’s the motto of some North Texans who vow to build on the momentum they gained when joining thousands of Americans in swarming to Jena, La., last month to show support for a half-dozen African-American youths embroiled in a civil rights controversy.
They’ve been meeting, planning and strategizing on how to continue — and advance — what some say may be a long-awaited revitalization of the civil rights movement.
“We’re concerned about the future of America — just the hope and promise that America puts out there,” said Ki-Afi Moyo, an organizer with the North Texas-based Equal Justice group. “This is a free country where people are supposed to have equal civil rights. That’s what we all want to believe in.
“But it’s not equal; it’s not all fair,” said Moyo, of Dallas. “We want to continue to have hope, but America is not delivering on the promise.”
Some say recent outrage over the Jena Six, the Louisiana youths charged as adults in an assault last year on a white student, touched a nerve across the nation. It sparked rallies, marches and protests — a level of activism seldom seen since the 1950s and 1960s.
Locally, Equal Justice is working to get North Texans involved in the movement through letter-writing campaigns, a court-watching program and registering people to vote.
“This is about injustice, period,” said Latrice Fowler of Little Elm, also a member of the North Texas group. “The events that happened in Jena woke a lot of people up, people who were trying to let things get better on its own.
“But enough is enough,” she said. “We have to stand up for our rights and what is fair.”
A new movement?
Thousands of people jammed into the Jena, a town of 3,000, last month to show support for Mychal Bell, one of the teens at the heart of the controversy.
Racial tensions began last year after a black student sat under a tree that was a traditional gathering spot for white students. After nooses were hung from the tree, three white students were suspended but weren’t criminally prosecuted.
After several racially motivated fights, Bell and five other black teens were accused of beating a white classmate, leaving him unconscious and bleeding.
Bell, so far the only one to be prosecuted, was initially charged with attempted murder but was ultimately convicted of battery. An appeals court recently threw out the conviction, saying he should have been tried as a juvenile, and he was released on bail last month after 10 months in jail. A judge put him back in jail last week for violating probation for a previous offense.
Many of the protesters in Jena last month spoke about the differences in how some black and white people are treated.
“It’s really good the Jena Six got this attention,” said Myrtle Bell, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Arlington who focuses on diversity issues. “Hopefully it will accomplish some changes in what happens.
“There are so many similar atrocities across the U.S. that are receiving little or no attention. The criminal justice system unfairly targets and imprisons young men of color.”
And if it is sparking renewed activism — or “the beginning of the 21st-century civil rights movement,” as the Rev. Al Sharpton called it — then Bell and others are encouraged.
Some fear that today’s activists may face an uphill battle, with the absence of strong leader figures in the mold of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Fowler said they will find their way.
“It’s still fresh, and none of us knows exactly what we’re doing,” she said. “But we heard Dr. King started in his 20s, and others started when they were young.
“We’re doing this for the generation that’s coming behind us. Just as I know our ancestors walked and sweated and bled for our rights, I want them to know we will do it too.”
Equal Justice
Equal Justice is the North Texas group formerly known as Texas Supports Jena Six. Organizers said they changed the name to reflect an expanded focus on all cases of injustice, not just the Louisiana case.
They held a town hall meeting in Dallas recently, drawing dozens to brainstorm how to move forward and keep their voices heard.
“We’re just going to continue to see what happens,” Moyo said. “At this point, Jena Six has been the greatest inspiration for new activism in the 21st century. It has inspired people to stand up and take action. It’s about time.”
Among the group’s plans:
Creating Project Shadow, in which volunteers will monitor courts and trials to call attention to any cases — like the Jena Six — that they believe are a matter of injustice.
Developing a system to mobilize protesters for rallies or marches.
Registering people to vote and making sure they get to the polls.
Starting a letter-writing campaign, not only in support of Bell but also for any issue they believe needs officials’ attention.
“We’ve got to continue creating awareness of what’s going on at home,” said Kandice Ezell of Carrollton. “This is about showing our children true role models and how we continue to create a pathway.”
Ezell said Equal Justice wants to help other groups work with them and together, in addition to preparing its own members on how to make their voices heard.
“This is only the beginning,” she said. “There’s still work to be done.”
Continuing developments
Since the Sept. 20 rally in Jena, La., developments include:
Copycat noose threats have been reported, including one last week on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University.
A student in Nashville is suing her school district to be able to wear a “Free the Jena Six” T-shirt, which she was not allowed to wear to school last month.
John Mellencamp wrote a song named Jena, which includes the lyrics “Jena … take your nooses down,” and filmed a video that the Jena mayor called inflammatory and defamatory.
Mychal Bell, the one member of the Jena Six who was in jail at the time of the march, was ultimately released on bail. Last week he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for violating his probation for previous convictions of battery and criminal destruction of property.
Some students participated in the National Student Walk Out for Jena Six on Oct. 1.
Source: Star-Telegram research
atinsley@star-telegram.com
Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610
Friends of Justice 
The Justice Department investigated the noose-hanging incident. Donald Washington, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, chose not to pursue hate crime charges against the three teens accused of hanging nooses at Jena High School because it could not be established that the nooses were meant to intimidate black classmates. According to Jena bloggers, hanging stuff beneath the tree was a tradition prior to fotoball games. They say the three white students, who were unaware, like most Americans, that some African Americans perceive nooses as racial threats, hung the two nooses, which were painted the school colors, as a taunt to Jena High School next football opponent, the Cowboys. This sounds like a blogger fantasy, but the mainstream media has not bothered to ask the students why they hung the nooses. Washington said that the noose-hanging would have been a misdemeanor anyway and a hate-crime must be “a federal felony of violence.”
Following the Jena High School beating incident, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into the noose-hanging incident and found no link to the assault on Justin Barker or other confrontations between black and white students at Jena High School. Donald Washington, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, told CNN that “A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection.” He added that “We could not prove that, because the statements of the students themselves do not make any mention of nooses, of trees, of the ‘N’ word or any other word of racial hate.” The CNN story (“U.S. Attorney: Nooses, Beating at Jen High Not Related”) is
posted at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/index.html
Mychal Bell was not sentenced to 18 months for violating parole. Prior to the Jena Six incident, Bell had been convicted of battery and placed on parole. While on parole, he was charged and convicted for a second offense. His sentencing on this second conviction for battery was postponed when he was charged in Jena Six incident. Once his conviction as an adult in the Jena Six beating was overturned, the postponed sentencing hearing went forward. His alleged participation in the beating of the white student at Jena High School was not considered during the sentencing hearing. According to lawyers, it was never even mentioned.
Mychal Bell’s conviction as an adult on charges of aggravated battery in conncection with the beating of the white student at Jena High was overturned prior to sentencing. To date, the only person convicted and sentenced in connection with the Jena Six events is a 22-year-old white male named Justin Sloan. He was arrested in conncection with a fight at a private party that involved Robert Bailey, a member of the Jena Six. He pled guilty to a charge of battery and was placed on parole because it was his first offense. This does not represent unequal justice. Virtually no one goes to jail for a first offense. Mychal Bell, for example, was paroled for his first offense.
Blair:
Unfortunately, the noose boys were asked why they hung the nooses back in September of 2006. They said they had been watching “Lonesome Dove” on television and thought they would hang some nooses as a copy cat act with no deeper significance. Superintendent Breithaupt and the disciplinary committee bought that story–as did the Jena Times. If the noose hangers had been clever enough to come up with the silly “football game” theory now making the rounds they would have done so, and the Jena Times would have gladly reported it. Now we hear no more of Lonesome Dove–the explanation was obviously too unconvincing, so a substitute had to be created. Please don’t insult the intelligence of the American people.
You are right; US Attorney Don Washington has said that there is no connection between the nooses and the assault on Justin Barker. And yes, he did use the fact that the witnesses at trial didn’t reference the nooses as an explanation. However, the silence of the witnesses is easily explained by the fact that neither the eyewitnesses questioned in the aftermath of the December 4th incident, nor the witnesses who testified at trial were ever asked about the nooses. For obvious reasons, they were only asked about the events of December 4th. Judge JP Mauffray had clearly ruled the noose incident, or any other event antecedent to Dec. 4th, off limits.
I fail to see how any objective person could consider the events transpiring between the noose incident and the December 4th assault and conclude that what happened to Justin is an unrelated matter. Mr. Washington will have to answer for his bizarre statements–and in due course he will do so.
In Mr. Washington’s defense, however, he has said (a) that the noose hanging was an expression of hate (he doesn’t buy the alternative theories); and (b) that the school’s didn’t handle the noose hanging very well.
I should remind you, Blair, that all of these issues will be considered in detail when (and if) these cases ever make it into the courtroom. Pray that a good defense attorney never has a chance to debunk the ludicrous theories currently making the rounds in Jena. Jena needs to deal with its racism and its unequal system of justice. But that hardly makes Jena any different than any other town in America.
Finally, the equal justice argument has often been misapplied. Friends of Justice has never suggested that Mr. Sloan should have been handled more harshly than he was. We are suggesting that the assault on Robert Bailey is eerily similar to the assault on Justin Barker, the main difference being that Robert wasn’t knocked cold by the initial punch and that Mr. Sloan’s friends were not charged even though they clearly jumped Robert. While it is difficult to reconstruct violent episodes after the fact, it is clear that the police made very little attempt to investigate the details of the Bailey assault.
The unequal justice claim was initially sparked by the over-reaction to the Barker incident compared with the mild response to the Fair Barn incident. In addition, the boys-will-be-boys treatment of the noose hanging stands in marked contrast to the over-charging of the Jena 6.
There are a lot of people who believe the noose boys should have been tried as adults as hate criminals. Friends of Justice does not advocate that position. The disciplinary response to the nooses should have been educational more than punitive. Over-charging Robert’s assailants and prosecuting the noose hangers would have accomplished nothing of substance.
The fight at the private party may have been adequately investigated, but information regarding the fight certianlally appears to be inadequate. In his statement to police, Bailey says that Sloan hit him and Windham hit him and then other people jumped in and the fight was broken up. Does he means other people from both groups? Did the other people jump in to beak up the fight? Who broke up the fight? Why wasn’t Windham charged? The probablity is that witnesses gave conflcting statements. The police department has refuted claims that a gang of whites attacked Bailey with beer bottles.
Three things or a combination of them elevate simple battery to aggravated battery: (1) the use of a deadly weapon, (2) severe injuries, and (3) whether the victim was helpless or defenseless. Bailey did not require medical treatment following the fight at the private party. Barker’s attorneys estimate his medical expenses at $12,000 to $14,000. The doctors who treated Barker may be called to the stand to describe his injuries, but many juries would probaly consider the medical bills and the fact that an ambulance had to be called as evidence of serious injury. The two incidents also differ in that members of the Jena Six alledgelly continued to kick Barker in the head after he lay unconscious (helpless and defenseless) on the ground. The circumstance are not eerily similar. The fight at the private party is similar to fights that occur all across the country when uninvited teenagers attempt to crash private parties. If Bailey and his friends had left when the one of the host s asked them to leave, there would have been no fight.
The three students who hung the nooses could not be tried as adults because they weren’t adults. Federal attorney’s testified before the House Judiciary Committe yesterday that federal criminal charges could not be brought against them because of their age. Reed Walters says he would have charged them except that Lousiana hate crime laws apply only to acts of violence.