(NAME-MCE) Injustice in Jena, Black Nooses Han ging from the “White” Tree

Wed Aug 29 16:28:59 EDT 2007

Here is a letter than can be used to get the word out.

Debra

Dear friend,

I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happening today 
in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaign for justice 
in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.

<http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/>http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath 
the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the 
superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat 
under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school 
accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their 
protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I 
can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did 
nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the 
DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and 
conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, 
lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in 
"their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men 
are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press. Together, we can 
make sure their story is told and that the Governor of Louisiana intervenes 
and provides justice for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please join me:

<http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/>http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage 
for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple 
of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High 
School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black 
student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black 
students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a 
shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were 
filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft 
of the gun.

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of 
the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten 
up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students 
"nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black 
students. He was taken to the hospital, but was released and was well 
enough to go to a social event that evening.

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin 
Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, 
were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree 
attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who 
has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and 
conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white 
jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his 
trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the 
court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the 
judge could see them.

Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 
22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.

The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting 
tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are 
standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their 
sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we can make a 
difference.

Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved 
to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed 
Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.

<http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/>http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

Thanks.

At 02:10 PM 8/28/2007, you wrote:

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Injustice in Jena, Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree
>Published July 4th, 2007 Racism , Workers' Rights , Human Rights ,
>Civil Liberties , Politics , News
>
>Injustice in Jena, Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" Tree
>
>Watch  a Democracy Now segment on the Jena case.
>
>By BILL QUIGLEY
>Counterpunch, July 3, 200
>
>In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all
>white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white
>prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial
>of a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been
>making racial taunts was hit by black students. The fight was the
>culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites
>responded to black students sitting under the "white tree" at their
>school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white
>prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on
>one side of the courtroom. The black defendant, 17 year old Mychal
>Bell, and his supporters were on the other. The jury quickly convicted
>Mychal Bell of two felonies - aggravated battery and conspiracy to
>commit aggravated battery. Bell, who was a 16 year old sophomore
>football star at the time he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in
>prison.
>
>Five other black youths await similar trials on attempted second
>degree murder and conspiracy charges.
>
>Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being
>reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is
>just as chilling.
>
>The trouble started under "the white tree" in front of Jena High
>School. The "white tree" is where the white students, 80% of the
>student body, would always sit during school breaks.
>
>In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked
>permission from school administrators to sit under the "white tree."
>School officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.
>
>The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from
>the "white tree." The message was clear. "Those nooses meant the KKK,
>they meant 'Niggers, we're going to kill you, we're going to hang you
>till you die,'" Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the
>London Observer.
>
>The Jena high school principal found that three white students were
>responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of
>schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day
>suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt.
>"Adolescents play pranks," the superintendent told the Chicago
>Tribune, "I don't think it was a threat against anybody."
>
>The African-American community was hurt and upset. "Hanging those
>nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple," according to Tracy Bowens,
>mother of students at Jena High.
>
>But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The
>ten person all-male government of the parish has one African-American
>member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American
>member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out
>the racial makeup of the school board was told there was one "colored"
>member of the board). There is one black police officer in Jena and
>two black public school teachers.
>
>Jena, with a population of less than 3000, is the largest town in and
>parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350
>African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over
>14,000 people - 12% African-American.
>
>This is solid Bush and David Duke Country - GWB won LaSalle Parish 4
>to 1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white
>vote when he ran for Governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60% of
>the national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10% of
>the businesses in LaSalle Parish are black owned.
>
>Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for
>Youth that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after
>opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking
>of juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S.
>Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that
>guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried
>to commit suicide.
>
>Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the
>"white tree" at the school to protest the light suspensions given to
>the noose-hanging white students.
>
>The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law
>enforcement officers to address a school assembly. According to
>testimony in a later motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the
>black protesting students saying that if they didn't stop making a
>fuss about this "innocent prank I can be your best friend or your
>worst enemy. I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen." The
>school was put on lockdown for the rest of the week.
>
>Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.
>
>On the night of Thursday November 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire
>burned down the main academic building of Jena High School.
>
>On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white
>party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man
>pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the
>Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it
>away from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later
>arrested, no charges were filed against the white man.
>
>On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white studentwho allegedly had
>been making racial taunts, including calling African American students
>"niggers" while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who
>beat up the black student at the off-campus partywas knocked down,
>punched and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to
>the hospital treated and released. He attended a social function that
>evening.
>Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted
>second degree murder. All six were expelled from school.
>
>The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior whose bail was
>set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old
>Carwin Jonesbail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvisbail $70,000; 16
>year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as an
>adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified
>minor.
>
>Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in
>jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.
>
>Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial
>because his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has
>also remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in
>jail for months until their families could raise sufficient money to
>put up bonds.
>
>The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined "Racial Demons
>Rear Heads." The London Observer wrote: "Jena is gaining national
>notoriety as an example of the new 'stealth' racism, showing how
>lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America's Deep South,
>even in the year that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate
>for the White House." The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV
>special report "Race Hate in Louisiana 2007."
>
>The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to
>plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards
>pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not
>plead guilty to a felony.
>
>When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was
>represented by an appointed public defender.
>
>On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted
>second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and
>conspiracy. Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be
>with a dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was
>allowed to argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could
>be considered a dangerous weapon used by "the gang of black boys" who
>beat the white victim.
>
>Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned,
>fifty people appearedevery single one white.
>
>The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all white group to the
>Alexandria Louisiana Town Talk newspaper saying that the jury pool was
>selected by computer. "The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is
>color blind. The idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial
>makeup of the community, but the system does not take race into
>factor." Officials said they had summoned 150 people, but these were
>the only people who showed up.
>The all-white jury which was finally chosen included two people
>friendly with the District Attorney, a relative of one of the
>witnesses and several others who were friends of prosecution
>witnesses.
>
>Bell's parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed
>to attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed
>as potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was
>allowed to stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely
>quoted in the media as critics of the process, were also told they
>could no longer speak to the media as long as the trial was in
>session. Marcus Jones had told the media "It's all about those nooses"
>and declared the charges racially motivated.
>
>Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were
>ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the
>judge would see them.
>
>The prosecutor called 17 witnesses - eleven white students, three
>white teachers, and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the
>victim, others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim
>testified that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.
>
>The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the
>all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The
>public defender told the Alexandria Town talk after resting his case
>without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed
>by many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not
>guilty. "I don't believe race is an issue in this trialI think I have
>a fair and impartial jury"
>
>The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell
>guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree
>battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in
>prison.
>
>The public defender told the press afterwards, "I feel I put on the
>best defense that I could." Responding to criticism of not putting on
>any witnesses, the attorney said "why open the door for further
>accusations? I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell."
>
>At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas
>minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said "I have seen a lot
>of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing
>miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish
>yesterday." Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial
>as a "modern day lynching."
>
>Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents
>for months. "People know if they don't demand equal treatment now,
>they will never get it. People's jobs and livelihoods have been
>threatened for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are
>willing to risk that. One person told me: 'We have to convince more
>people to come rally with us
..What's the worst that could happen?
>They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway.
>They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has
>happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it
>doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe.'"
>
>Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. "We
>don't have a problem," according to one. Other locals told the media
>"We all get along," and "most blacks are happy with the way things
>are." One person even said "We don't have many problems with our
>blacks."
>
>Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in
>LaSalle Parish said it all could have been avoided. "There's no doubt
>about it," he told the Chicago Tribune, "whites and blacks are treated
>differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment
>for hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed
>could have been avoided."
>
>Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to
>raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the
>end of the rally when he said "You better get out of your houses. You
>better come out and defend your childrenbecause they are incarcerating
>them by the thousands. Jena's not the beginning, but Jena has crossed
>the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and
>then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I
>believe in accepting the punishment if I'm guilty. If I'm guilty,
>convict me and punishment, but if I'm innocent, no justice" and the
>crowd joined with him and shouted "no peace!"
>
>What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was
>later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets
>onto the high school campus and released on $5000 bond. The white man
>who beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and
>charged with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses
>in the "white tree" were never charged.
>
>The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and
>financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been
>holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fundthe
>Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP,
>the Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice.
>
>People interested in supporting can contact: the Jena 6 Defense
>Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342 jena6defense at gmail.com; Friends
>of Justice, 507 North Donley Avenue, Tulia, TX 79088,
>www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 56157, New Orleans,
>LA 70156 www.laaclu.org or 417.350.0536.
>
>What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore
>Shaw is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be
>sentenced July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence he will not be out
>of prison until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the "white tree" outside
>Jena High sits quietly in the hot sun.
>
>Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola
>University New Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley at loyno.edu
>
>Audrey Stewart contributed to this article.
>
>For more information, videos, etc. click here , and here
>
>YouTube video of rally of Jena residents demanding justice
>
>Sign on-line petition calling for intervention of US Civil Rights Division
>
>12 Responses to "Injustice in Jena, Black Nooses Hanging from the "White" 
>Tree"
>
>--
>Bill Howe
>http://www.billhowe.org
>
>Come with me to China in 2008 - http://www.billhowe.org/China2008.htm
>*Multicultural Education in Connecticut Blog - http://ctmce.blogspot.com/
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>*Travel Blog - http://billhowe.org/BillBlog/
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>*Past-President - National Association for Multicultural Education
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