Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the massive march on Jena, Louisiana.  Black Voices has put together a helpful update providing answers to a host of Jena 6 questions including up-to-the-minute news concerning each of the defendants.  Most of the commentary is taken from Howard Witt’s stories in the Chicago Tribune.   (Note: if you click on the link you will find lots of nifty pictures and additional commentary.)

As most readers of this blog are aware, Friends of Justice was the first organization to investigate this story and get the facts to the wider world (a fact not mentioned in this coverage).

Was Jena the birthplace of the Black blogosphere, as Howard Witt suggests?  Some of you may want to express an opinion.

Jena Six Anniversary: How Things Have Changed

Posted Sep 18th 2008 6:00AM by Carmen Dixon
Filed under: BlackSpin, Jena Six, Black History 365, News

Jena Six Case

AP

A year ago, rallies in support of the Jena Six were held in Jena, La., and elsewhere in the US. The Sept. 20, 2007, marches were a reaction to the racially-charged case involving attempted murder charges filed against six black teens for a schoolyard fight. The altercation was sparked by a noose being hung from a tree at the school by white students. 

Jena Six Case
Rallies in support of the Jena Six were held in Jena and elsewhere in the United States on September 20, 2007 the date when Mychal Bell was scheduled for sentencing.

Last year, on September 20, 2007, the small town of Jena, which sits 220 miles north of New Orleans, became the setting for one of the largest civil rights demonstrations since the Million Man March.

Although the estimates of exactly how many marched in the town of 3,000, police estimate 20,000 college students, religious leaders, civil rights activists, their allies, and national and international media made their way to Jena to protest “selective justice.”

From Howard Witt, Special Correspondent to The Chicago Tribune:

JENA, La. – There is no single leader. There is no agreed schedule. Organizers aren’t even certain where everyone is supposed to gather, let alone use the restroom. The only thing that is known for sure is that thousands of protesters are boarding buses at churches, colleges and community centers across the country this week, headed for this tiny dot on the map of central Louisiana.

Some months earlier, the case of six black teenagers had caught the attention of reporter Howard Witt at the Chicago Tribune and The Observer/UK’s Guardian; and in turn their stories caught the attention of a new kind of black activist blogger and their digital allies.

All of a sudden, blogs jumped to the forefront as a way for important information to the black community to be passed along and acted upon. It was bloggers and their supportive, outspoken readers who ensured that the mainstream media and established Civil Rights stalwarts would not be allowed to ignore a case so rife with controversy and abuse of power.

The Afrosphere was born. It was an unequivocal signal that America’s civil rights movement would have a powerful digital component from here on out.

From Howard Witt:

As formidable as it is amorphous, this new African-American blogosphere, which scarcely even existed a year ago, now comprises hundreds of interlinked blogs and tens of the thousands of followers who within a matter of a few weeks collected 220,000 petition signatures-and more than $130,000 in donations for legal fees-in support of six black Jena teenagers who are being prosecuted on felony battery charges for beating a white student.

These days, bloggers occupy a passing lane on the information highway and it seems completely expected. Candidates and political parties court digital coverage as much as they seek that of mainstream media. But it wasn’t always so. Just think about how different things were just one year ago.

Jena 6 – Where Are they Now?

Jesse Ray Beard
The youngest defendant in the Jena Six case, he was 14 at the time of the events, is using his share of money donated for defense attorneys to attend Canterbury School in New Milford, Conn., a private boarding school with a focus on college preparation. He is a junior this year. Following probation, Beard left Jena to live with an attorney in Westchester, New York where he thrived in the new, more structured environment.

Robert Bailey
Robert Bailey was the young man first assaulted by other attendees of a predominately white party on December 1, 2006. Many saw that attack as an accelerant to the tensions connected with the assault that would later occur on Justin Barker – although Justin Barker had nothing to do with Bailey’s assault. When the police arrived, Bailey and his black classmate were told to “go back to your side of town.” Bailey later caused an uproar when he put pictures of himself covered in and eating money, presumably money donated by average people all over the world to help pay legal costs, up on his MySpace page. According to his coach, he has gotten his act together and now attends high school at Shaw High School in Columbus, Georgia, where he has been granted an extra year’s eligibility to play football.

Mychal Bell
Bell is the only member of the ‘Jena 6’ to stand trial. Bell pleaded guilty to juvenile charges of second-degree battery in December and is expected to testify against other members of the ‘Jena 6’ in upcoming trials. Bell admitted that he did in fact assault Justin Barker while speaking to CNN in August. He was denied a chance to play his senior year of high school football in August at Carroll High School in Monroe, La. Bell missed his last year of football eligibility because he was in jail.

Carwin Jones
Jones and Bryant R. Purvis helped present the Video of the Year award on Black Entertainment Television’s Hip-Hop Awards during the October awards show. His charges were reduced at his arraignment to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same. Jones was arrested May 10, 2008, and charged with misdemeanor battery in connection with a fight that involved baseball bats. Jones said he has been constantly targeted and intimidated at his new school and that the incident that day “hit a nerve” and he reacted.

Bryant Purvis
Purvis now lives in Carrollton, Texas and was arrested on February 7, 2008 for an assault causing bodily injury on a fellow high school student. Police say Purvis walked up to another student from behind, grabbed his neck with one hand, choked him and pushed his head into a bench.

Theo Shaw
Last spring, Shaw was 2 credits away from earning his high school diploma. Both Malcolm Shaw, Theo’s brother who police did not initially name as an attacker in the case, and Theo have now been named in the civil suit by Justin Barker’s family.

Justin Barker
According to USA Today, Barker and his family have filed a civil lawsuit against the ‘Jena 6’ parents, the adult teens, an additional student and the local school board. Justin Barker and his parents, David and Kelli, allege in the suit that seven Jena High School students attacked Justin on Dec. 4, 2006, as he left the school gym. The suit names the attackers as the “Jena Six” students – Bell, Bryant Purvis, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Theo Shaw and a juvenile – as well as a second juvenile.

District Attorney Reed Walters
The D.A. who first charged the Jena 6 recently made an appeal in the removal a judge in the “Jena Six” case. Walters objected to the removal of the Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. who admitted to using questionable remarks in the case, including calling the teens “troublemakers” and “a violent bunch.”

March Noose Instigator
Jeremiah Munsen, a Louisiana teenager who hung nooses off the back of his truck to intimidate Jena Six demonstrators is serving four months in prison for interfering with the march. He was initially charged with “inciting a riot.”