If you don't know who the Jena 6 are, you are not alone. The first I heard about the black high school teens being railroaded through the Louisiana criminal justice system was last week when I received tons of emails with Jena 6 in the subject line. The Jena 6 case has gotten remarkably deep into the judicial system with little news coverage until recently. Dubbed the "Jena 6", the 6 Jena high school students were overshadowed by the Michael Vick dog fighting case. All occurring around the same time important decisions were being made about the lives of 6 racially discriminated youth. The original series of events that caused the landmark trial are now a year old, with cries for help just now starting to be heard.
The Jena 6 case began last fall when a new black student moved to the mostly white, rural Louisiana town of Jena and sat under the "white tree," so called because it was the place where the white kids at school congregated.
The next day three white boys on the rodeo team hung three nooses (ropes) from the tree.
The white boys were only given an in-school suspension, their act deemed no more than a "prank."
"The White Tree"
The day after that several of the school's black high school football stars organized a peaceful silent protest under the tree. The school freaked, called in the police and the next day Reed Walters, the local D.A., addressed the school. There, he is reported to have looked at the black kids in the audience, waved his pen in the air and said, "With a stroke of this pen, I can make your life disappear."
The football season was a good one for Jena and for a few months there was relative quiet in the town. Then on November 30th, a wing of the high school was burned down. Whites thought it was blacks and the blacks assumed it was the whites.
"The next night, 16-year-old Robert Bailey and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. When Bailey got inside, he was attacked and beaten. The next day, tensions escalated at a local convenience store. Bailey exchanged words with a white student who had been at the party. The white boy ran back to his truck and pulled out a pistol grip shotgun. Bailey ran after him and wrestled him for the gun.
After some scuffling, Bailey and his friends took the gun away and brought it home. Bailey was eventually charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace. The white student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.
The following Monday, Dec. 4, a white student named Justin Barker was loudly bragging to friends in the school hallway that Robert Bailey had been whipped by a white man on Friday night. When Barker walked into the courtyard, he was attacked by a group of black students. The first punch knocked Barker out and he was kicked several times in the head. But the injuries turned out to be superficial. Barker was examined by doctors and released; he went out to a social function later that evening.
Six black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault. But District Attorney Reed Walters increased the charges to attempted second-degree murder."
The first black kid to go to court, Mychal Bell, then 16, was tried as an adult and convicted by an all-white jury. He faced 22 years in prison. After an outcry the charges were reduced; however, tomorrow Mychal Bell is to be sentenced on the lesser charges.
The white kids who attacked Bailey the night before have not been charged with anything.
As always happens in these cases, the blacks say of course there has always been racism in this little town, and the whites say their little town is just like any other small town full of good, churchgoing folk.
Perhaps the scariest thing of all this is how District Attorney Reed Walters, can get in front of the whole school, single out the few black kids in the auditorium, and say, "With a stroke of this pen, I can make your life disappear." I know I’m not the only American that is blasted back into the 1960’s with the cruelness of such a threat. Especially after ropes had already been hung from a tree on school grounds. Reed Walters honored his threat by raising the charges from assault to attempted murder on the majority of the youth. Later those charges would be reduced by ensuing media pressure. Furthermore, the ropes (nooses) hanging from the tree should have carried harsh if not criminal charges. There is no room for this in society, especially in the school system. Protests and support have now spread beyond the state of Louisiana, as 200 Los Angeles high school students walked the streets in support of the Jena 6 Thursday. Jena 6 T-Shirts are available online reading, "Support the Jena 6." One can only hope that the Governor of Louisiana intervenes in this trial. As the Jena 6 are scheduled to appear in front of an all white Jury, and a white judge.
Foreword and Closing written By: Kris "KP" Patrick
Facts provided by: Associated Press
