The NAACP is now taking credit for exposing the injustice in Jena. No surprise there; they also took credit for the Tulia debacle. In both cases, the NAACP dithered and dawdled while Friends of Justice got the facts straight, worked the media and drafted more responsive allies into the fight. In both cases, the NAACP rushed to the forefront at the eleventh hour.
I have been criticized for beating up on white people while giving black America a pass. If I lose my patience with white folks because they call the shots, in America and in tiny towns like Jena, Louisiana. This combination of unfettered power and blissful ignorance has stirred up a witches brew of trouble, but the people making public policy decisions live in blessed isolation from their own mischief.
Ultimately, white people must come to the table. We cannot be ignored because, in the public policy poker game, we hold all the cards. Notice, I said “we”. I am part of white America and there ain’t a damn thing I can do about it. The leopard, as the Good Book says, cannot change its spots.
The September 20th march on Jena was a virtually all-black affair. Several hundred white people showed up, but in a crowd that immense you had to look really hard to find us. If a white person was asked to speak even once it escaped my attention. Peter, Paul and Mary set the stage for Martin’s “dream speech”, but in Jena we weren’t invited to the dance.
Ironically, white people brought the Jena story to the world. Friends of Justice was on the ground for over a month before Tory Pegram, a gifted, and incurably white, activist with the Louisiana ACLU, answered our call for help. Tory didn’t necessarily come with the blessing of her organization; she came because she cared.
White people investigated and framed the Jena story. A white reporter named Howard Witt broke the story in the mainstream media. A white journalist named Jordan Flaherty introduced the story to the independent media and the blogosphere. A white law professor named Bill Quigley gave the story credibility with veterans of the civil rights movement. A white BBC correspondent named Tom Mangold broke the story in the international media before it caught fire in America. Amy Goodman gave the story a big boost by featuring it on Democracy Now (Amy performed a similar service in the early days of the Tulia fight). The reporters who brought the story to Goodman’s attention were also white.
I must also point out that high-profile black organizations didn’t flock to the banner of the Jena 6 until after the trial of Mychal Bell, that is, after the story clearly had legs.
Don’t get me wrong, our organizational meetings in Jena were overwhelmingly black from the beginning. It should also be noted that King Downing, a highly effective black organizer with the national ACLU, joined the fight early on at the request of Tory Pegram. In addition, several NAACP representatives from the Jena region contributed to the organizing and Tony Brown, a black radio host in Alexandria, was the first journalist to give the Jena 6 sympathetic coverage. Also, James Rucker, the black leader of Color of Change, multiplied the organizing capacity of the Jena 6 movement by bringing the story to the attention of his vast network.
But if white people brought Jena to the attention of the nation, black Americans transformed the story into a phenomenon. Once black bloggers and radio talk show hosts latched onto the Jena 6, momentum began to build behind the massive protest we saw on September 20th.
The tipping point came in late July in the wake of a rally in Jena that attracted 300 people, a third of them white, to the LaSalle Parish courthouse. By that time, Color of Change had already collected over 100,000 petition signatures and donations were beginning to roll into the Jena 6 defense fund. For the first time, representatives of the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party were on hand. They didn’t seem comfortable around white folks like me. One woman ostentatiously refused to shake my hand because I was white. I have felt a similar reserve from many black activists; although most have been too polite to make their feelings explicit.
The critical moment came late in the day as torrential rain was beating down on the enormous tent the Jena 6 families had rented for the Ward 10 ball park on the black side of Jena. All the out of town guests had gone home and only the Jena 6 families and the primary protest organizers: Alan Bean, Tory Pegram, King Downing, and James Rucker, remained.
A cell phone rang and somebody said, “It’s Al Sharpton. He wants to talk to the families.”
I wasn’t surprised. Sharpton’s people had called Friends of Justice earlier in the week asking for contact information for the Jena 6 families. That was the last time they would talk to us, or to any of the original organizers.
Days later, Jesse Jackson flew to Alexandria via private jet, picked up one of the parents of the Jena 6, then jetted back to Chicago for interviews, photo opportunities and fund raising.
Suddenly, mainstream media coverage of Jena was primarily coverage of Al Sharpton. This wasn’t necessarily the reverend’s doing; it appears to be the way the media game is played in America. A legitimate civil rights story is whatever story Sharpton has latched onto. It’s a lot like professional wrestling: Sharpton mugs for the cameras, Jesse Jackson fumbles for the microphone, black folks clap and whistle, white folks hiss and throw rotten fruit, and the media people are happy because . . . hay, everybody’s paying attention!
This format was on display in the days leading up to September 20th. The media scrum chased after Rev. Sharpton and his sizable entourage whenever his stretch limo pulled into sight. Talk show host Michael Baisden stood at Sharpton’s side outside the courthouse (clearly a power-sharing arrangement of some kind had been worked out behind the scenes). Baisden boasted that 50,000 of his listeners were descending on Jena even as he spoke. The Rev. Al thanked the Bad Boy of Talk Radio for taking on the Jena 6 “at considerable commercial sacrifice”.
The Nation of Islam was given a precious two minutes in front of the cameras; just long enough for an articulate young man with a scowling visage to announce, on behalf of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, that Allah intended to punish the white racists in Jena with a natural disaster (details were not disclosed).
Then Al and Michael climbed into their limos and it was back to Alexandria for a book signing and the closest thing to a posh hotel Central Louisiana affords.
Then, at long last, the state NAACP swept into Jena in full force. They were organized, articulate and effective. We could have used this show of support back in March, but were happy to have it in September. Jesse Jackson threw in his lot with the NAACP folks from Baton Rouge and New Orleans; Al Sharpton and Michael Baisden proceeded with a parallel rally.
In the end, everything worked out amazingly well. The crowd was exuberant, energized and positive. They were there for the kids and, blissfully ignorant of the power struggles going on behind the scenes, the ordinary people made the show.
Neither Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson nor Michael Baisden made the slightest effort to involve the original organizers (white or black) in the planning process. In fact, Baisden told his listeners that they should send their Jena 6 contributions directly to him. The implication was that the existing Jena 6 defense fund was tainted in some fashion. Calls from the original organizers to Baisden’s people were not returned.
This didn’t mean that groups like Friends of Justice and Color of Change have been rendered impotent. Color of Change has raised a sizable war chest for the legal teams representing the defendants, every penny of which will soon be placed in the hands of the families and their attorneys. Original organizers, including Friends of Justice, have been working behind the scenes to draft civil rights groups, church organizations, and some of the best attorneys in America into the fight.
As the media circus winds down, the legal fight is roaring into high gear. The Jena 6 still face charges that could put them in prison for a decade. The Rev. Sharpton et al don’t seem too concerned about the legal fate of the Jena 6–so long as the white kids get hammered just as hard.
Meanwhile, the court of public opinion has fractured along racial lines. Most black people think the Jena 6 are the victims of a corrupt criminal justice system; most white people can’t see what all the fuss is about.
I got into this struggle for two reasons: the defendants needed solid legal representation, and America needed to talk. By bringing the plight of the Jena 6 to the attention of the nation, I hoped to spark a long-deferred conversation about race and the criminal justice system. The more lively this conversation became, I believed, the better the chance that Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis, Carwin Jones, and Jesse Ray Beard would some equal justice.
It isn’t my job to dictate outcomes to the criminal justice system–I just want the system to operate according to its own rules. That’s why Friends of Justice called for a change of venue (no one in LaSalle Parish can be considered objective after the dramatic and highly polarizing events of recent months). And we have called for DA Reed Walters and Judge JP Mauffray to recuse themselves (I will leave it to the lawyers to explain why this is needs to happen).
The Jena 6 will get the kind of legal representation every American deserves, but this will not happen because Al Sharpton and Michael Baisden crashed the party; it will happen because a dedicated and gifted coalition of organizers, defendant families, and local supporters cared enough to bring a complicated collection of facts to the attention of the nation.
The folks currently at the helm of the Jena 6 media show have inadvertently sparked a vicious backlash in large segments of white America. The white progressives who initially rallied to the Jena 6 banner are beginning to back away. Racists are merrily hanging nooses and “hang the Jena 6” zealots are making their presence felt.
On a more positive note, the Jena 6 story has forced opinion leaders in the African American community to admit that the new civil rights movement needs to focus on young people like Mychal Bell. The cruel machinations of the New Jim Crow are coming to public awareness, and not a moment too soon.
Why was it left to white folks to discover the Jena 6 story? Why weren’t black journalists the first on the scene? Why were traditional civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the Legal Defense Fund so slow to step up? Because everybody is looking for the next Rosa Parks. The civil rights movement can’t come to terms with the social dynamics of the New Jim Crow because it’s still operating out of an Old Jim Crow paradigm. The victims of a flawed criminal justice system are routinely overlooked because . . . they have been accused of crimes.
A lot of liberal white people backed away from Mychal Bell as soon as it was revealed that he had “issues”; a lot of black people distanced themselves from Mychal because he didn’t look like Rosa.
On November 7th, attorneys for four of the Jena 6 defendants will file into the LaSalle Parish courthouse. Inevitably, media coverage will shift from the sins of the children to the transgressions of grown-ups like Reed Walters and School Superintendent Roy Breithaupt. Attorneys who prefer to do their talking in the courtroom will finally get a chance to talk.
My fervent prayer is that, as the focus changes, the painful perception gap between white and black America will begin to narrow. The Jena 6 story has produced lots of heat; now maybe we’ll see some light.
The grandstanding self promotion we have seen around this case might be an inevitable part of the process. Maybe this is just the way we do things in America. Perhaps the only realistic alternative to the Jena 6 media show is a deadly and deafening indifference. If it takes a circus to get a little justice in America, then bring on the clowns. I just hope the media can tell the difference between a celebrity with a pocketful of one-liners, and a defense attorney with a briefcase crammed with facts.
Friends of Justice 
Alan:
I’m sorry that I’m your first commenter. Looks as if no one is really paying attention to you anymore.
I’ll move beyond my opposition to your feelings about the evidence in the Jena 6 case and focus on the overall issue at hand.
If you’ve seen the news lately, you’ll notice that Al Sharpton is NOW in Staten Island, NY defending a black man who was beaten by 4 white men. The prosecutor has charged the defendants with aggravated battery, which brings a possible 15 year prison sentence. Sneakers are being used at the “lethal weapon” to constitute aggravated battery. Sharpton says that, since the white attackers hurled racial slurs, then this is a hate crime and hate crime statutes should be thrown in with the other charge.
It sounds as if your disparity in punishment between the white and black communities is alot more complex than you THINK. Sharpton snickered about tennis shoes being weapons in Jena, yet said nothing ABOUT them in the Staten Island case. Fifteen to 22 years for Bell was WAY too much, the Jena 6 should all be set FREE! While the possibility of fifteen years is NOT ENOUGH for the white attackers in Staten Island, he wants hate crime charges added to the mix. Sharpton showed even more-so his infantile attitude about things by threatening a protest if the prosecutor didn’t slap hate crime charges on the attackers.
You seem to have a valid cause in that you ask for equal treatment completely void of racial bias. I am for that as well, but NO INCIDENTS in Jena are comparable to the Justin Barker beating, and YOU know that. There should be an investigation into Walters’ past prosecution to see if bias exists. That’s the only way to compare apples to apples. If bias does exist, steps need to be taken to alleviate the problem.
I’d also like to add that racism is running rampant in BOTH races it seems. Al Sharpton’s idea of justice clearly shows racial bias. Jesse Jackson told Barak Obama he was being “too white”. And guess what? The Reverand Brian Moran, someone you have almost CERTAINLY met, was arrested today for pulling a gun on a college-age guy and his mom. According to eye witnesses, he called the woman the “white b**ch” then PULLED A GUN at J.J.’s Fish House. You’ve probably seen this restaurant, it is right outside the black community in Jena. It’s guaranteed to be in the Jena Times (I’ve reported it to the Alexandria Town Talk), but you know the national news media is unconcerned with it. It is not politically correct to show this case to the public.
In summary, to alleviate the problem in its entirety, we need to address BOTH sides of the race card. Giving Al, Jesse, and Reverand Moran a free pass is simply unacceptable. Giving Walters’ a free pass, IF his past prosecutions are shown to be racially-biased, is unacceptable. Our country is becoming way too liberal, allowing Sharptons and Jacksons to run rampant and freely bash white Americans with their own form of bias.
Racism is wrong, on EITHER side.
From Jena:
Congratulations on being the first to comment. The Jena story is currently in hibernation, but will emerge from its slumbers when things heat up in the courtroom. When that happens, defense attorneys, not Mr. Sharpton, will speak for the defendants. Sharpton’s inconsistencies have no bearing on the issues in Jena; nor do Rev. Moran’s legal problems (if such there be). Sharpton’s helped turn Jena into a national phenomenon; but he has never understood what happened in Jena or why it matters.
If you have been reading my stuff, you will know that I am not concerned about bias in Reed Walter’s record as a prosecutor. The ACLU has asked for the appropriate documentation and Walters responded with a law suit–so we won’t be learning anything meaningful along that line in the forseeable future.
My assertion from the beginning is that Mr. Walters played a major role in creating the toxic social environment apart from which the violence of early December would have been inconceivable. Robert Bailey and Justin Barker would not have been assaulted if Walters (and other community leaders) had taken the noose incident seriously. This doesn’t excuse the violence; but it places events in their proper context. My concern, as I reiterate above, is that the legal process be fair and equal; and that means a change of venue, a special prosecutor and a new judge.
Most people seem to assume that , if convicted, members of the Jena Six will receive the maximum possible punishment, but this is unlikely. The sentencing would more likely be similar to those handed out in in a 2005 case that was similar to the Jena Six beating. Five white South Carolina teenagers who beat up a black teenager were charged and convicted of “second-degree lynching and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.” (There was no actual lynching, or hanging, involved. Second-degree lynching is defined by South Carolina law as any act of violence on another person by a mob when death does not occur. A mob is considered two or more people whose purpose and intent is committing an act of violence on another person.) Like the Jena Six, the white teenagers kicked the victim, 16-year-old Isaiah Clyburn, as he lay on the ground. The attack left the black youth “on the roadside bruised and bloodied from the attack.” The white teenagers received the following sentences: One, who prosecutors said was the person most responsible for the attack, was sentenced to 18 years suspended to six years and 400 hours of public service. Two were sentenced to 15 years suspended to three years and 300 hours of public service. And one was sentenced to 15 years suspended to 30 months and 300 hours of community service. A sixth co-defendant, Amy Woody, 17, was also charged with 2nd-degree lynching even though she did not take part in the beating. Most, of course, will not serve their full sentences.
Although prosecutors consider Mychal Bell the one most responsible for the beating, he would probably get off the lightest, if convicted, since he would be sentenced as a juvenile. The four members of the Jena Six who will be tried as adults, if convicted, would probably received sentencing tailored to their participation in the beating, just like the South Carolina teens. The youngest member of the Jean Six is not expected to face charges.
Alan:
I realize that you are an intelligent person and I respect your viewpoints, but everyone in Jena LIVED the series of events that took place in Jena.
You know that the noose incident occured in the middle of August, while the Fair Barn incident, Gotta Go incident, school burning, and Justin Barker beating all occurred within a four-day span of time in the start of December. I know your argument is that the nooses created a climate for what happened, but they are still LOOSELY connected at best. You cannot indeterminably say that if the nooses would have been handled differently that none of this ever would have come about.
It is ever-so obvious now that Mychal Bell has violent tendencies (4 violent priors BEFORE this beating occurred), and the others’ criminal backgrounds will almost certainly be exposed if they exist in the future (assuming they have one). With this in mind, I would venture to say that no matter HOW the nooses would have been handled, Mychal Bell and company still would have resorted to their violent ways on December 4th.
The Justin Barker beating clearly shows premeditation, if you read the eye witness statements (http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/003979.html), which I know you have read. More than 10 students discuss events that happened before and after the Justin Barker beating that show they were threatening other male white students that day:
– the statements say one student was pushed very hard repeatedly by Theo Shaw
– the statements say they gathered around one guy in the school gym and Robert Bailey’s friends were yelling something to the effect of “beat his *ss Bailey, it’s not football season anymore”.
– the statements say one of the Jena 6 said “you’re next” to a student after they beat Barker.
– several statements say they heard one black student who was implicated in the Justin Barker beating (but not arrested) say that there was a list of names they had of people who they planned to beat up
According to these statements, all of the threatening actions took place while several of the Jena 6 and friends were around (at least 3 everytime). It’s the same characteristics of the events that directly led up to the Justin Barker beating. So this premeditation, along with Bell’s violent tendencies (I know Bailey, Jones, and Shaw have the same tendencies, maybe not the others), shows that they resort to violence to solve their problems.
Yes, some of the incidents that occurred and Jena need to have a few layers peeled back to see if they were done professionally, correctly, and removed of racial bias. But your theory that this could have all been prevented if the noose hangers would have been punished harder just doesn’t hold water to me. I disagree with you.
From Jena:
I don’t have time at the moment to respond to your observations, but I will make one quick comment. The eyewitness statements clearly reveal that Justin Barker was involved in a trash talking session with several black athletes during the lunch hour prior to the assault. As you suggest, the boys certainly weren’t talking about the noose incident. In fact, it is likely that the nooses were the furthest thing from their minds that morning. They were thinking about the fire; they were thinking about the Fair Barn; and they were thinking about the Gotta Go. One statement from a black student makes it clear that Robert Bailey was at the heart of the conversation. The evidence at our disposal suggests that black students were indignant about the events of the weekend, and there are strong suggestions that some of the white students were pleased with the way things were playing out. Robert Bailey (a) got whupped at the Fair Barn, and (b) got in trouble with the law at the Gotta Go.
It is important to remember just how ugly the school environment became in the wake of the noose incident (check out old issues of the Jena Times if you have forgotten). Also, there is growing evidence that a series of altercations between friends of the noose hangers and the black athletes who led the protest persisted throughout the fall semester. In other words, black and white male students who had previously gotten along reasonably well were now in a dangerously adversarial relationship. I am suggesting that this animus would never have existed, at least not in such an extreme form, if the noose incident had been resolved properly.
I am not suggesting that the noose hangers should have been expelled for the year, and I am certainly not saying they should have been prosecuted as hate criminals. Instead, an educational response was needed. This would have shown the noose hangers why their actions were so upsetting to black residents. It would have validated and largely relieved the legitimate anger of black students and their families were feeling. Most importantly, it would have allowed the entire community to affirm the fundamental principle of racial equality.
Why these steps were not taken I don not know; but they would have largely eliminated the animus between black and white students. Perhaps, as a resident of Jena, you can enlighten us.
Some more tidbits about your boy, Mychal Bell
Bell’s record:
12-25-2005: Charged with second degree
battery.
4-13-2006: Initial charge above plea
bargained down to simple battery.
Released on probation until the age of
18 and ordered to obey all laws. That
simple task was too much for Mychal Bell.
Probation violations:
7-25-2006: Charged with simple criminal
damage to property.
9-2-2006: Charged with simple battery.
9-3-2006: Charged with simple criminal
damage to property. The very next day!
12-4-2006: Charged with attempted murder.
Reduced to aggravated second degree
battery.*
*Jena Six beating
Bell’s original probation was for a potentially fatal beating he delivered to his 17-year old Black girlfriend at the time. He attacked her in the usual “Blindsider Bell” fashion on Christmas Day, 2005, then continued to attack her as she lay on the ground. He dislocated her eye socket with this vicious attack, and her eye socket is still damaged and may be damaged for life.
It is a fact that Mychal Bell punched a 17-year old girl in the face, and that this is one of his battery offenses.
His mother, Melissa Bell, stabbed and wounded two of her boyfriends with knives. The outcome of those cases is not known. Melissa’s rap sheet is about one page long..
Source:
http://robertlindsay.blogspot.com/2007/10/mychal-bell-gets-18-months-in-juvenile.html