http://www.abc-usa.org/news/2007/20070917a.htm

The protests in Jena, Louisiana were covered all over the world.  Even the Edmonton Journal, in Alberta, Canada, did a major story!

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=5118c1bd-d122-4c13-8b89-ec0ad64dd637&k=58575

Are you wondering why over 10,000 people are converging on Jena today, and as many as 100,000 more people are going to vigils in their city?  Here’s an excellent article in The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071001/sorkin

(more…)

Posted by Executive Director Alan Bean:

I have been in Jena for three days now and this is the first time I have had time to send an update. This is being written from Robert Bailey’s computer and will be mercifully brief. The big guns have arrived in town and the community is bracing for the arrival of thousands of visitors. Today was a media circus with Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden and other luminaries holding forth for the cameras.

Meanwhile, coverage of the story on CNN has degenerated to a single question: “Which is worse, Justin Barker’s black eyes or nooses hanging from a white tree?” Reed Walter’s role as producer and director of this entire tragedy is being entirely overlooked by most reporters. Tomorrow the event itself will control the day–the thousands of folks who have sacrificed sleep and income to make this trip will be center stage alongside the Reverends, the rappers and their retinues.   When I showed up at Antioch Baptist church, I remembered the first organizing meeting when I was the only person from outside Jena in the room. This time, the church had been comandeered by VH1 and I was told I could not enter. Instead, Salt and Peppa (remember them) were inside interviewing the Jena 6 parents while fully uniformed members of the New Black Panther Party patrolled outside. It was a cartoon–something I didn’t particularly want to be associated with. I have no beef with these people–but why are they suddenly in charge? And why have the folks who stood by the families when no one else would listen been so rudely thrust aside. I know I’m not supposed to focus on these questions–but I have watched this movie before–in Tulia, Texas.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson is accusing brother Obama of being soft on the Jena 6. How’s that for solidarity?

Tomorrow, the Jena 6 will likely be nowhere to be seen. Lawyers are concerned that the media may pry comments from them that could be damaging in court. The concern is legitimate. I hate to see these kids miss the action; but they must be protected from their admirers.

Friends of Justice has been working with Joseph Mathews, a young pastor and former teacher with a unique passion for the hip hop generation. While the media scrum chases Brother Sharpton, Joseph and I have been talking to the young people of Jena. The other night, before the hordes descended, we spent five hours with several members of the Jena 6. We didn’t talk about the law, the fight, or anything else the media would ask about; we talked about their families, their faith, and their future. We got them talking about girls, music, college and their dreams for the future. These are fine young men. Joseph Mathews has a unique capacity to relate to young people; it has been a pleasure to watch him work. He is putting together a documentary for the hip hop generation and we have shot some incredible footage. Hopefully, we will be able to post the end result on our website.

Joseph and I have been subsisting on four hours sleep and we haven’t been grabbing our first meal until five or six in the evening–too much going on. I will write more about our adventures when I have more time. Keep praying and fighting for these kids–when the crowds go home and the dust clears, they will still be looking at a long uphill slog.

I would also ask you to pray for the thousands of people who will descend on Jena tomorrow, and for the residents of this community as they adapt to a new world. I may be cynical about the leaders of this shindig, but I have nothing but admiration for the folks riding the buses. God bless them, every one. And God bless you for investing so much love and compassion in this fight. Jena is America. Tomorrow, America comes home. The logistical problems in tiny Jena will be incredible. Gridlock and chaos are virtually inevitable. But I’m not sure any of that matters. Simply being in Jena will be an experience no one will forget.

Here’s another new story on Jena that quotes Alan Bean, Executive Director of Friends of Justice.  We can see that the media is starting to grab hold of our “new Jim Crow” analysis.  Finally, the mainstream media is starting to connect the dots, after receiving this clear message from Friends of Justice and other civil rights groups: the criminal justice system has become twisted to deal with the problems of poverty and racism in America.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20793079/site/newsweek/page/0/
The ‘Jena Six’
Things are looking up for six black teens charged with trying to kill a white classmate last year after a Louisiana court vacated the conviction of one of the men. But national civil-rights advocates say something remains very amiss in the small town.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Gretel C. Kovach
Newsweek
Updated: 2 hours, 29 minutes ago
Sept. 15, 2007 – Civil rights protestors are still planning to converge on tiny Jena, La., next week—even though the “Jena Six” claimed a major victory Friday. It’s been nine months since six high school students were arrested and accused of trying to beat a white classmate to death. Even longer since nooses were found hanging from a schoolyard oak tree favored by whites the morning after black students dared to venture under its boughs.

Mychal Bell, the 17-year-old former Jena High School football star convicted on a felony assault charge in the case, has been incarcerated since the December fight. But on Friday, a state appeals court vacated Bell’s conviction. He was 16 years old at the time of the fight and should not have been tried as an adult, the court ruled. The attempted murder charges were also reduced recently for the other Jena Six teens facing adult punishment. Local black residents and many outside observers said the murder charges were overly harsh. The only weapons involved were the students’ tennis shoes, and while the white victim was treated for injuries at a hospital, he went home the same day.

The ongoing controversy has thrown Jena, population about 3,000, into an uncomfortable spotlight that isn’t likely to dim with the latest court decision. Civil rights activists, bloggers and black radio hosts helped spread the word about the case, demanding an end to what they see as unequal justice. On Saturday, some of the Jena Six and their relatives and lawyers joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson in Chicago at his Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters. “We will not rest” until all charges are dropped against the Jena Six, Jackson said. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union is reviewing data from the La Salle Parish district attorney’s office for evidence of racial disparities or violation of civil rights. The district attorney has declined to comment on the case, citing a gag order.

Jackson and other activists say what’s happened in Jena is indicative of the “new Jim Crow” racism that inflicts many parts of the country. There is a “misuse of the criminal justice system as a kind of poverty control,” says Alan Bean, an activist with the civil rights group Friends of Justice. “We have basically criminalized poor people. … I think Jena is a particularly egregious example of business as usual in the American criminal justice system.”

According to a review of the latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics released by The Sentencing Project, a non-profit criminal justice center, African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites, and Hispanics nearly double the rate. Louisiana has a higher rate of black incarceration than the national average or that of nearby states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. But it has a lower rate than Texas, Florida and others. Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, blamed the growing disparities on racial bias and a failure of social and economic interventions to address crime effectively.

While national activists continue to push for change, Bell may finally be able to go home after a new bail hearing on Monday. Bean doubts that any of the other Jena Six cases will ever go to trial, though the La Salle Parish district attorney, Reed Walters, has vowed to appeal Bell’s case to the Louisiana Supreme Court. “We’re not necessarily out of the woods yet, even as far as Mychal’s case is considered,” Bean said. “But vacating a conviction is a very, very positive step.”

Bell’s father, Marcus Jones, said his son never tried to kill anyone and that the charges against him were ludicrous. More than anything, Jones wants Mychal to realize his dream of playing college football with one of the top schools that had been recruiting him. On the field, “he’s like poetry in motion,” Jones recalled last month in Jena, describing the last time he saw him play at Jena High. “I want his credibility back, his eligibility, like this never happened. That’s the way it should be.”

On the other side of the Jena color divide, the town’s white leaders feel equally misrepresented. Billy Fowler, a white school board member, says most people in his hometown agree that the Jena Six were dealt with too harshly. But he bristles at the charges of racism. “They want to see our town as being the most racist town in the world. That’s what’s being painted of Jena. Obviously this is the Deep South. If we went back in time 50 years, maybe what they’re saying would have been true. But today we have come a 1,000 miles from that.” If the Jena Six supporters ultimately prevail, the town could go a lot further still.

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc. |

Here’s another excellent story on Jena that explains how Friends of Justice made Jena into a national scandal.  The reporter gives us a window on our model of civil rights advocacy works.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1189839542326110.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

Jena case grabs world’s attention
Schoolyard fight turns into cause celebre
Saturday, September 15, 2007
By Jonathan Tilove
Newhouse News Service
JENA — Thousands are expected to descend Thursday on this town tucked amid the tall timber of central Louisiana to protest the case of Mychal Bell, the first of six black teenagers to be tried on felony charges for attacking a white classmate in school last December. On Friday, Bell’s conviction was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled he could not be charged as an adult on an aggravated battery charge because he was 16 at the time of the incident. Bell, who faced up to 15 years in prison if his conviction had been upheld, still could be charged in juvenile court. The ruling also will not affect four other teenagers also charged as adults, because they were 17 at the time of the fight and, legally, no longer juveniles in Louisiana. (more…)