The Jena 6

So, many know that racism is still alive and well in the US. So, here is another case of blatant injustice in the US.

Please read this important account (by Bill Quigley writing for the Black Commentator) of 6 black youth in Louisiana charged with second degree attempted murder after hitting and kicking a white kid. These students had already been victim to hate crimes that had gone unpunished.

An excerpt from Bill Quigley's article is pasted below:

"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 student – who 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 party – was 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 Jones – bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis – bail $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."

Again, to read the complete story by Bill Quigley, click here

Mychal Bell, the first to go to trial had his charges reduced to agrravated battery and conspiracy and was convicted. He will be sentenced on July 31 and could get up to 22 years in prison.

Democracy Now talks to the mother of Robert Bailey, the mother of Bryant Purvis, and Mychal Bell's father. To read/watch/listen to this story from Democracy Now, click here.