[Onthebarricades] US: Civil rights movement revives in deep south

[Andy]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-20-jenainside_N.htm

 

            Old-fashioned march shows support
           

       

             
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      By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY 

      JENA, La. - Most of the 3,000 residents of this town, which is 85% white, were out of sight Thursday as hundreds of buses disgorged thousands of people protesting what they called a racist prosecution of six black teens accused of beating a white schoolmate. 

      There was no violence, no big confrontations. 

      And that should be no surprise, white locals said, because Jena is not a racist town. 

      "I believe in people standing up for what's right," said resident Ricky Coleman, 46, who is white. "What bothers me is this town being labeled racist. I'm not racist."

      Protesters said the case of the Jena Six, as the defendants have become known, is a rallying point for a fight against racial injustice. 

      Al Sharpton, one of the march organizers, referred to it as the revival of the civil rights movement for the 21st century. 

      Marchers said the prosecution of the six, who were charged initially with attempted murder, shows that gains made by African-Americans in the 1960s are threatened. 

      "I wouldn't have thought that in 2007, we'd be so behind and still dealing with this injustice," said Martha Kelly, 64, a retired speech therapist from Alexandria, La. 

      She said she marched in front of Alexandria department stores in the '60s so they would hire blacks. 

      For those too young to have taken part in the Freedom Rides and other protests of that era, Thursday's rally was historic.

      "I feel recently that that clock is moving backwards," said Eric Jarrett, a junior at the University of Michigan. He pointed to a Michigan law passed last year ending affirmative action at the university and a Supreme Court ruling that race cannot be a determining factor in assigning children to public schools. 

      Ashley Stevenson, 22, a Southern University student from Tulsa, said, "You can't allow something like this to happen. This is something that affects everybody."

      Several white locals stood in their yards to watch the crowd walk by. Some took photos.

      To some, the rally was an unfair slap against their town because the marchers did not consider the full story of the events in Jena in the past year. 

      Dave Nelson, a retired Jena High School teacher, waved to the marchers even as he complained that they were calling for the release of Mychal Bell, 17, who was revealed in a court hearing to have a juvenile record for assault. 

      "I believe 90% of the people here don't know what's really going on. This is a knee-jerk reaction," Nelson said. "But there's nothing wrong with this - it's part of our democracy." 

      Nikkisha Breaux, 34, disputes the claim that Jena is not racist. At two small rallies for the Jena Six in the spring, she said, residents yelled racial slurs and flew Confederate flags. "So how can they say there's no racism here?" she asked. 

      The protest Thursday had been planned to coincide with the sentencing of Bell, the only defendant tried so far, who was convicted of aggravated battery. Last week, an appeals court overturned the conviction, saying he should have been tried in juvenile court. 

      Marchers said the six teens were unfairly prosecuted.

      Betty and Becky Lawson, sisters from Birmingham, Ala., were among the few whites who attended the rally. 

      "It's so wrong what happened," said Betty Lawson, 49, a publishing company sales representative. "There are still two kinds of laws, especially in the South. We hate that because we love the South." 

      Marcher Angela Merricks, 36, an Atlanta real estate agent, complained that white youths who jumped a black student did not face such serious charges. "I want everybody treated fairly," she said.

      Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and Jesse Jackson led the rally, accompanied by relatives of the defendants. They were joined by Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters of California and William Jefferson of Louisiana, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and entertainers Tyler Perry and Mos Def.

      Sharpton said he and Waters, Jefferson and Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas will press the House Judiciary Committee next week to summon the district attorney in the case to explain his actions before Congress. Sharpton also plans a march in Washington in November. 

      He said, "What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice." 
     

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-21-jena_N.htm

 

            Teen in 'Jena 6' case denied bail
           

       

            Updated 9h 9m ago | Comments 978  | Recommend 58 
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      From staff and wire reports

      JENA, La. - Bail was denied Friday for a black teenager whose arrest in the beating of a white classmate led to this week's huge civil rights demonstration in the central Louisiana town of Jena, according to the father of one of his co-defendants.

      The bond hearing for Mychal Bell, one of the group known as the Jena Six, was held this afternoon in a juvenile court in Jena. Lawyers would not comment because juvenile court proceedings are secret. But John Jenkins, the father of one of Bell's codefendants, said Bell's bail request was denied. Bell's mother left the courthouse in tears and refused to comment. A man accompanying her said, "Denied" as they walked out.

      Bell is the only one of the group known as the "Jena Six" to have been tried so far in last December's beating of white classmate Justin Barker. Bell was convicted on a charge of aggravated second-degree battery, which could have led to 15 years in prison, but his conviction was thrown out by a state appeal court that said he could not be tried on the charge as an adult. He was 16 at the time of the beating.

      The hearing came about a day after thousands of marchers took to the streets in Jena, demanding Bell's freedom. His case and that of five others - together dubbed the "Jena Six" - has prompted accusations of racial injustice: Some bloggers, radio stations and newspapers have held it up as a symbol of a system that punishes blacks more harshly than whites.

      FIND MORE STORIES IN: Louisiana | Courthouse | By Alex Brandon, AP | Lasalle Parish 

      The beating of which Bell is accused followed a series of racially charged incidents after a black student asked to sit under a schoolyard tree where whites congregated. The next day, nooses hung from the tree.

      After the rally, a teenager was arrested in nearby Alexandria, La. when police allegedly found hangman's nooses dangling from the rear of his pickup after he drove past a crowd of people who had attended a civil rights march earlier in the day.

      Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Colfax, La., and a 16-year-old passenger in his truck were arrested Thursday night near a bus station where a group of people who had marched in Jena were waiting for buses to take them home.

      Munsen, who is white, was booked on charges of inciting a riot, driving while intoxicated and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. A city attorney will decide whether charges against the 16-year-old boy from Dry Prong, La., are warranted, said Alexandria Police Sgt. Clifford Gatlin.

      "I wish we had a charge in Louisiana for aggravated ignorance, because this is a classic case," Gatlin said.

      Gatlin said the crowd of about 200 people at the bus station remained calm throughout the episode.

      "They were just offended and appalled that somebody would be that stupid to do that," Gatlin added.

      Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy, who met with many of the demonstrators at the bus station before they departed, said the visitors assured him they wouldn't let the incident taint their otherwise positive impression of the city.

      "The citizens of Alexandria know who we are," Roy said. "I think we demonstrated that with great moral force" by hosting thousands of march participants this week.

      The 16-year-old, who was being held in a juvenile detention facility Friday, told police he had a "KKK" tattoo on his chest and said some of his relatives were involved in the Ku Klux Klan, according to a police report.

      Officers found an unloaded .22-caliber rifle and a set of brass knuckles in Munsen's truck, police said.
     

 

 

 
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