House Panel to Weigh Jena 6 Case’
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
October 16, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Civil rights activist Al Sharpton says Congress should expand hate crime laws to deal more forcefully with noose-hanging incidents like the one in the Jena Six case in order to squelch what he called a sharp rise in racism.

Sharpton, a New York-based reverend, was to testify Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about the case of six black teenagers in the small Louisiana town of Jena charged with the beating of a white student. The incident happened after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus there -- a symbol of the violence of the segregation era.

Since the Jena case began attracting national attention, there have been a number of other nooses found in high-profile incidents around the country -- in a black Coast Guard cadet's bag, on a Maryland college campus, and, last week, on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University in New York.

"Nooses, the 'n' word, a Klansman's hood, and the burning cross are the clearest symbols of hate for black America," Sharpton said in remarks prepared for delivery to the committee.

Last week, one of the Jena Six, Mychal Bell, was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a judge determined he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction.

Racial tensions began rising in Jena in August 2006 after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.

More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated.
 

Click here for more Jena 6 news over the weekend.

'Jena 6' teen Mychal Bell freed on bail
BY CHRISTIAN RED in Jena, La. and HELEN KENNEDY in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Finally released on $45,000 bail after months in jail, Mychal Bell (center) appears with his parents and the Rev. Al Sharpton outside LaSalle Parish courthouse yesterday.

Mychal Bell walked out of jail yesterday, a week after a huge civil rights march demanding his freedom, but the prosecutor worsened racial tensions by declaring that Jesus saved the town from protestors. "Had it not been for the direct intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ last Thursday, a disaster would have happened," District Attorney Reed Walters said. "You can quote me on that."

Walters spoke just before Bell, 17, was freed on $45,000 bail after spending 10 months in jail for beating a white classmate. "He goes home because a lot of people left their home and stood up for him," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, referring to the Sept.20 march. "We do not condone violence of any kind. ... Upon this young man's shoulders is a movement for fairness."

His parents at his side, Bell, who did not speak, walked out of the LaSalle Parish courthouse, flanked also by Martin Luther King 3rd and Sharpton, who recently supplanted less media-savvy local activists to become Bell's spokesman.

An all-white jury convicted Bell after his court-appointed lawyer failed to question any witnesses. The conviction was thrown out this month when an appeals court said he should not have been tried as an adult.

Walters, who is being accused of treating black offenders more harshly than white ones, said he decided not to appeal the ruling.

He said he would retry the case in juvenile court as soon as possible. "I believe that it is in the best interest of the victim and his family not to delay this matter any further," he said.

Walters charged Bell and five black friends - known as the Jena 6 - with attempted murder last year for punching and stomping white classmate Justin Barker after a series of ugly racial incidents in town.

Walters later reduced the charge to aggravated battery, which could still put the teens in prison for 20 years. White students who hung nooses from a school tree and beat up black classmates received lesser charges.

Asked flatout, "Are you racist?" at his press conference yesterday, Walters snapped, "Wrong."

Still, he displayed a tin ear by saying the police and Jesus saved the town from the hordes of civil rights marchers.

A black pastor, the Rev. Donald Sibley of Jena's New Evergreen Baptist Church, suggested it was a "shame" not to give some credit to the tens of thousands of people who pulled off a peaceful mass demonstration, but Walters just shrugged. "What I'm saying is that the Lord Jesus Christ put his influence on those people and they responded accordingly," he told Sibley.

The pastor later said Walters had deepened Jena's divisions. "He's separating Christ once again: his Christ and our Christ," Sibley told CNN. "For him [to say] that because his Christ, his Jesus, because he prayed, because of his police, that everything was peaceful and was decent and in order - that's not the truth."

Mychal Bell, right, one of the Jena Six, hugs Rev. Al Sharpton after leaving the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, La., Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. Bell, whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here was released on bail Thursday. His release came hours after a prosecutor confirmed that he will no longer seek an adult trial for the teen. (AP Photo/Kita Wright)

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, left, listens as Rev. Al Sharpton speaks Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007, during a news conference at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Tim Mueller)
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'Jena 6' parents take plea to Capitol Hill
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
 
WASHINGTON -- The parents of one of six black Louisiana teens facing the possibility of years in prison for beating a white classmate took their plea for help to Congress on Tuesday, attempting to build on momentum gained last week after tens of thousands of people from across the country rallied to free their son.

Black congressional leaders said after meeting with the parents of Mychal Bell, the only one of the six youths in jail, that they would hold hearings and ask the FBI what it can do to intervene in the case.

The teens, referred to as the Jena Six after the rural Louisiana town where the incident occurred, have become a symbol for African-Americans who say the justice system treats blacks more harshly than whites. They were charged initially with attempted murder, but District Attorney Reed Walters reduced the charges against four of them to aggravated battery.

Bell was convicted in May, but this month an appeals court overturned the conviction, ruling he should have been tried in juvenile court. Walters has refiled the charges there.

The beating followed a series of racially charged incidents that included white students hanging nooses from a schoolyard tree.

Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the committee will hold hearings on the case in early October. "These kinds of indignities and injustices will not be tolerated," Conyers said.

Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III will meet today with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to ask her what she can do to get Bell released and have the charges against all six dropped.

Marie Centanni, the governor's spokeswoman, said Blanco cannot intervene because Bell and the others still face charges. Under Louisiana law, the governor can issue a pardon only after a prisoner has been convicted and sentenced. "She is monitoring it closely," Centanni says. Blanco has spoken with the state Attorney General, the U.S. attorney for the Western District and Walters to raise her concerns that the youths receive fair treatment.

Over the weekend, Blanco ordered state police to investigate and protect the families of the Jena Six after a neo-Nazi website posted their names, addresses and phone numbers "in case anyone wants to deliver justice." The FBI is investigating the posting.

Hip-hop artists have performed concerts to draw attention to the case. Musician David Bowie donated $10,000 to a defense fund.


Rev. Al Sharpton says he'll march on Jena again if he has to
BY HELEN KENNEDY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, September 26th 2007
 
The Rev. Al Sharpton threatened to call another march on tiny Jena, La., yesterday as the parents of a jailed black teen took their fight to free him to the halls of Congress. "If we got to go back with mass demonstrations, we will," Sharpton said after a meeting among black lawmakers, civil rights activists and the parents of Mychal Bell.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) promised to hold hearings next week on racial disparities under the law - including perhaps hauling in District Attorney Reed Walters to explain why he charged the "Jena 6" with attempted murder for punching and kicking a white classmate.

Conyers said he asked for FBI help in springing Bell, 17, who has been behind bars for 10 months and is being held without bail even though his conviction was vacated.

Sharpton, who is meeting with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco today, wants the presidential hopefuls to get involved as well. "We call on the candidates: Go to Jena," he said. "Because if you can't understand Jena, you can't understand us."

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a desperate battle for the black vote, but neither has seized on the Jena issue - though it's the No. 1 topic of discussion on urban radio and around black dinner tables.

The events in Jena, which started with nooses in a school tree and ended with Bell's conviction by an all-white jury, led to a massive protest march through the small town last Thursday.


Lawmakers Seek Jena 6 Teen's Release
By DEVLIN BARRETT -- 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A lawmaker said Tuesday he will press the government for the release of a black teenager held in the "Jena 6" case that spurred one of the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years. Other activists said they planned more protests if the teen is not immediately pardoned.

"Our first responsibility is to get young Mychal Bell out of prison," said Rep. John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who said he will pressure the Justice Department to take a hard look at "the miscarriages of justice that have occurred in Jena, Louisiana." Conyers spoke after he and several other black lawmakers met with Bell's parents.

Bell, now 17, was one of six teens arrested after a December attack on a white student, in the culmination of several fights between blacks and whites. Five of the six teens initially were charged with attempted second-degree murder, though charges for four of them have been reduced. One teen hasn't been arraigned, and the case of the sixth, handled as a juvenile, is sealed.

A state appeals court recently set aside the aggravated second-degree battery conviction against Bell, the only teen to be tried so far, saying he could not be tried as an adult.

Bell remains in jail pending a possible appeal by prosecutors, a situation that activist Rev. Al Sharpton hopes will be addressed in a scheduled meeting Wednesday with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

More than 20,000 people converged on the small town of Jena last week to protest the case, and Sharpton said those non-violent protests may increase if Bell is not released quickly. "We started with a mass demonstration, and then next step would be non-violent civil disobedience," Sharpton said.

"We are not fighting for black kids that beat up white kids. We're talking about the disparity in how the law works," the New York-based activist said, adding that he still expects the local county prosecutor who brought the charges to be called to testify before Congress.

"That addresses for my residencies and offices are now publicly listed on the web page of the Neo-Nazi group that continues to list the addresses of the Jena Six and their families is outrageous and shows they are now tagging leaders that have come to the aid of the Jena Six. This illustrates why FBI efforts aren't taken seriously. We are in Washington, DC, today asking for intervention by the federal government because this is tantamount to mocking them. It also jeopardizes me and those that travel with me."

Reverend Al Sharpton, President National Action Network

Jena Six Case Heads to Washington Amid Hateful Backlash
Posted Sept. 24th 2007


The parents of Jena Six teen Mychal Bell and The Rev. Al Sharpton will meet with House Judiciary Chair Congressman John Conyers Tuesday to ask for federal hearings and intervention.

Last week, Conyers, an African American Democrat, said he would hold congressional hearings on the case.

"There should not even be allegations of unequal justice based on race or any other factors. This case brings to light what could be a national trend and the Judiciary Committee should explore that," Conyers said.

Sharpton has also called for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to have state police investigate threats being made against the Jena Six families.

The families have been bombarded with death threats after a white supremacist Web site allegedly published their addresses and phone numbers. The FBI is investigating the posting. Sharpton said some of the families have received almost around the clock harassment.

According to a news release from Sharpton, Bell's attorneys are pursuing his immediate release after a judge last week to refused to release him, despite having his conviction overturned by a higher court earlier this month.

Bell has been in jail the entire year, unable to meet his $90,000 bond.

The backlash has not been limited to threats against the Jean Six families. There's a report of noose-hanging copy cats in North Carolina. And not long after the rally on Thursday, two men were arrested outside of Jena who were seen driving a pickup with two nooses hanging off the back. One man was charged with inciting a riot.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press ran a piece Monday that sought to clear up some facts surrounding the Jena Six case that have been misreported by the media at large, among the items the AP pointed out:

• The so-called "white tree" at Jena High was congregated by both black and white students at one time or another, according to teachers and school administrators. (However, some black students have argued this fact.)
• Two nooses, not three, were found dangling from the tree last year. (Does it matter if there were two or 20?)
• The three white youths accused of hanging the nooses were suspended for three days, then they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks. (However, the police were never called and a report was never made.)

REV. AL SHARPTON AND THE PARENTS OF MYCHAL BELL TO MEET WITH SENATE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN CONGRESSMAN JOHN CONYERS ON TUESDAY IN WASHINGTON, DC
&
REV. SHARPTON AND MARTIN LUTHER KING, III, TO LEAD A DELEGATION TO MEET WITH LOUISIANA GOVERNOR KATHLEEN BLANCO IN BATON ROUGE ON WEDNESDAY

New York, NY (September 23, 2007)- Reverend Al Sharpton and the parents of Mychal Bell will meet with Congressional Judiciary Chairman Congressman John Conyers and members of the Judiciary Committee this Tuesday, September 25th at 12:00 (Noon) to ask for formal hearings about the Justice system in Jena, Louisiana, and to ask for the Chairman to seek federal intervention to lead the immediate release of Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six defendants who is being held unjustly.
 
According to Rev. Sharpton: “Mychal Bell is still being held despite the fact that his conviction was overturned. How can you hold someone on no conviction and not give them a bond on whatever pending juvenile charges you are implementing. It is a clear violation of his civil rights to be held with the overturning of his conviction.”
 
There will be a press conference immediately following the meeting outside of the Judiciary Committee office at the Rayburn House office Building in Washington, DC.

On Wednesday, September 26th at 4:00 p.m. at the Governors Office at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a delegation led by Reverend Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King, III, will meet with Louisiana Governor Kathlenn Blanco to discuss the Jena Six case and work with the delegation to assure the security of the Jena Six families that have been threatened. This continues meetings and discussions between the three over the past few months regarding this case that has gained national attention.

Jena protest ends but tensions are simmering
Sun, Sept. 23, 2007
By Abbey Brown, The (Alexandria, La.) Town Talk
JENA, La. --Thousands made the journey to Jena on Thursday to show their support for the "Jena Six." While the day may have remained peaceful during the rallies, the days since have been anything but.

First, it was the two teens who were arrested Thursday night after driving a pickup through downtown Alexandria, where ralliers had gathered, with nooses hanging off the back. Both allegedly had been drinking, and a gun and brass knuckles were found in their truck.

The next day, the FBI announced it was keeping tabs on a neo-Nazi activist in Roanoke, Va., who had posted the names and addresses of the Jena Six on his website proclaiming "Lynch the Jena 6," the Roanoke Times reported. William A. White also listed the phone numbers of the six, urging his readers to "Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."

INVESTIGATION: FBI looking into website with possible Jena 6 information
White, the leader of a Roanoke-based white-supremacist group has a penchant for inserting inflammatory rhetoric into racially charged incidents that attract national attention, such as the "Jena Six" case, according to the Times.

The "Jena Six" are the six black teens originally charged with attempted murder in connection with the Dec. 4 beating of white Jena High School student Justin Barker.

Barker was knocked unconscious and then kicked by the defendants, according to court documents. He was treated for three hours in a local emergency room, released and that night attended a class ring ceremony with his family.

Tens of thousands of people from across the nation descended Thursday on Jena to rally around the cause of the group, with specific emphasis on Mychal Bell, the only one of the six to have been tried and remain in jail.

Bell was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same -- the same charges most of the others now face. Both of his adult convictions have been vacated, one already being tried in the juvenile court system and the other in limbo until LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters decides whether to appeal.

Bell's attorneys on Friday were hopeful he would be granted bond, but it was denied.

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, described White's actions to the Times as "appalling, but it's not surprising."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued a statement Saturday condemning White's website, which she deemed as a threat. "Harassing families involved in the legal issues in Jena can not and will not be tolerated," she said in the statement. "Public attacks on private citizens done out of ignorance and hatred is appalling, and anyone who stoops to such unspeakable persecution will be investigated and subject to the full penalty of law. I have asked law enforcement agencies to investigate this matter, and as governor I will do everything in my power to put a stop to these cowardly threats to Louisiana citizens."

The Rev. Al Sharpton also issued a statement about the posting of contact information for the Jena Six family members. "Some of the families have received almost around-the-clock calls of threats and harassment since this website appeared, and to think that some person could actually harm or even continue to harass these families with no effort by law enforcement, will further exacerbate the tensions around this case immeasurably," he said. "Since our massive rally, there have been hangmen nooses found in several cities. The escalation has been met with a stubborn silence by officials in Jena, and we feel the governor must send in state law enforcement to investigate these threats and protect the public."

The actions of the teens in Alexandria, White and the hundreds of others who have been harassing the families are disgusting, the Rev. B.L. Moran said. He said Tina Jones, the mother of defendant Bryant Purvis, has been especially rattled by one threatening caller.
"There have been statements made on these websites saying if (Bell) was released that they'd kill everyone that has anything to do with the Jena Six," he said. "It certainly bothers them. It bothers them enough to get in touch with authorities."

The rallies were held to bring peace and unity, not violence or hatred, he said. "What they stand for is nooses and murder," Moran said of those threatening the families. "All of this is causing not just Jena and the parish trouble, but trouble all over America. Now when you turn on the TV, you see nooses hanging everywhere. And it all started in Jena."

Alan Bean, director of Friends of Justice, said the actions of the teens in the truck and those making threats represent people trying to provoke fear or anger. "They are sick individuals trying to get attention for themselves and piggyback on such a peaceful, beautiful event," he said. "They wanted to blemish something that was so completely without incident."

The situation in Jena, Bean said, won't be helped by hurling insults back and forth or, even worse, violence. "Jena has seen enough violence already," he said.

Sharpton said he and Bell's parents, Marcus Jones and Melissa Bell, will meet Tuesday with U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to seek federal hearings and intervention. "At the same time, Mychal's attorneys will pursue state remedies for his immediate release," Sharpton said in his statement. "For a judge to refuse to release him after his conviction was overturned is to hold the system of law in contempt and to further display the raw bias that inspired our involvement and participation in this movement around the 'Jena Six' since early this summer."

Sharpton said he and other civil rights leaders and activists will continue their plans for the next "major effort to protest this continued injustice." Those plans, he said, will be announced after Tuesday's meeting.

REV. AL SHARPTON CALLS UPON GOVERNOR BLANCO TO INTERVENE BECAUSE OF DEATH THREATS TO FAMILIES OF JENA SIX AS HE PREPARES FOR WASHINGTON, DC, TRIP WITH MYCHAL BELL'S PARENTS TO LEAD TO MYCHAL RELEASE

"I've called for Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to have state police investigate the threats that have innundated the families of the Jena Six young men since a web page listed their private residencies and phone numbers and since the Sheriff of the local city of Jena told a CNN reporter when confronted with this he had no plans to put in security for them. Some of the families have received almost around the clock calls of threats and harassment since this website appeared, and to think that some person could actually harm or even continue to harass these families with no effort by law enforcement, will further exacerbate the tensions around this case immeasurably. Since our massive rally there have been hangmen nooses found in several cities. The escalation has been met with a stubborn silence by officials in Jena and we feel the governor must send in State law enforcement to investigate these threats and protect the public.

We have confirmed a meeting for Tuesday at Noon with House Judiciary Chair Congressman John Conyers in Washington with the parents of Mychal Bell and I to seek federal hearings and intervention. At the same time, Mychal's attorneys will pursue state remedies for his immediate release. For a Judge to refuse to release him after his conviction was overturned is to hold the system of law in contempt and to further display the raw bias that inspired our involvement and participation in this movement around the Jena Six since early this Summer. National Action Network, along with the National Bar Association, Martin Luther King, III, and Michael Baisden the radio personality, are continuing our plans for the next major effort to protest this continued injustice and will announce our plans after Tuesday's meeting in Washington."

Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network

FBI reviewing anti-Jena 6 Web page
By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press Writer
The FBI is reviewing a white supremacist Web site that purports to list the addresses of five of the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student in Jena and "essentially called for their lynching," an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.

Sheila Thorne, an agent in the FBI's New Orleans office, said authorities were reviewing whether the site breaks any federal laws. She said the FBI had "gathered intelligence on the matter," but declined to further explain how the agency got involved.

CNN first reported Friday about the Web site, which features a swastika, frequent use of racial slurs, a mailing address in Roanoke, Va., and phone numbers purportedly for some of the teens' families "in case anyone wants to deliver justice." That page is dated Thursday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement Saturday that some of the families have received "almost around the clock calls of threats and harassment," and called on Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

A Blanco spokeswoman said the governor had asked law enforcement - primarily state police - to investigate. "These people need more than an investigation. They need protection," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. He said his organization would be in touch with President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey.

"This is a test for the disposition of the Department of Justice to serve as an intervenor and a deterrent" to hate crimes and discrimination, Jackson said. He said federal marshals should protect the families. Carolas Purvis, whose number was among three listed on the Web site, said she did not feel in danger. Purvis is the aunt of Bryant Purvis, who has yet to be arraigned. She said she has received a number of calls, some from people who say nothing, others to let her know that her number had been put on the site. One, Friday night, used the N-word to her young son, she said.

A dispatcher for the LaSalle Parish Sheriff's Department said no one in the office Saturday could say whether any threats had been reported.

Of the two other numbers listed as "active" on the Web site, one was not answered Saturday; the other yielded a constant busy signal.

On Thursday, thousands of demonstrators marched in a civil rights demonstration in support of the so-called Jena 6. The six black teens were arrested after a December attack on a white student - the culmination of fights between blacks and whites.

Of the six teens arrested, five initially were charged with attempted second-degree murder; charges for four have been reduced as they were arraigned. Charges against the sixth teen, booked as a juvenile, are sealed.

Mychal Bell is the only one to have been tried so far. A state appeals court recently threw out his conviction for aggravated second-degree battery, saying he couldn't be tried as an adult. He remained in jail pending an appeal.

William A. "Bill" White, listed as the Web site's editor and commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, did not immediately answer an e-mail to his address. Calls to one of the two William Whites listed in Roanoke were not answered; the other said he was not involved with the site.

Blanco said Saturday that harassing families involved in the case "cannot and will not be tolerated." "Public attacks on private citizens done out of ignorance and hatred is appalling, and anyone who stoops to such unspeakable persecution will be investigated and subject to the full penalty of law," she said in a statement.

OrlandoSentinel.com
EUGENE ROBINSON: Drive time for the 'Jena 6'
Eugene Robinson
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 22, 2007
WASHINGTON -- How did thousands of African-Americans come to descend on the town of Jena, La., on Thursday for a march and rally that brought to mind the heady days of the civil rights movement? The answer says as much about what has changed over the past half-century as it says about what hasn't.

Most people know the outlines of the story by now, but here's a synopsis: Black students at the local high school sat under a tree that everyone knew was a place where white students usually congregated. White students reacted by hanging three nooses in the tree. Racial tensions escalated from there, including fights in which both black and white students got roughed up but no one was seriously injured. Local authorities, who are white, handled the white offenders with a "boys will be boys" attitude - a few brief school suspensions, basically. Black offenders were expelled from school, arrested and charged as adults with felony offenses, including attempted murder.

These events happened in 2006. For months, they utterly failed to penetrate the national consciousness. We still might not know about what was happening in Jena if the case hadn't been noticed by Internet bloggers, who sounded the alarm. And I'm quite sure there would have been no busloads of protesters descending on Jena if the cause hadn't been taken up by a radio personality best known for R-rated banter about sex and relationships.

Michael Baisden, whose afternoon drive-time show "Love, Lust & Lies" is heard in urban markets across the country, launched a crusade on behalf of the "Jena 6" - a group of black students, aged 15 to 17 when they allegedly beat up a white schoolmate, and who still face adult charges of aggravated battery that could send them to prison for up to 20 years. The hours that Baisden normally would have spent in risque repartee with "grown and sexy" callers about romance or infidelity were devoted instead to the Jena case.

The obvious issue was one of equal justice: Either treat the whole series of incidents as a mere disciplinary problem for the high school to handle, or treat it as a criminal matter. Just don't have one standard of justice for whites and another, much harsher standard for blacks.

The cause was then taken up by other black radio hosts - Tom Joyner, whose morning drive-time show has enormous reach; Steve Harvey, the comedian whose morning show usually covers the same "Does he really love me?" territory as does Baisden's; the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose show, as you might expect, was already heavy on politics and activism.

Thursday morning, as the throng descended on Jena, both the Joyner and Harvey shows featured live updates from the scene. Baisden and Sharpton were in Jena, helping lead the demonstrations. It's fair to say that without black radio, the case of the Jena 6 probably never would have become a significant national story - and certainly never would have sparked one of the biggest civil rights protests in decades.

Why is this interesting? Because black America is increasingly complicated and diverse, riven by fault lines that didn't exist back when the great civil rights heroes were marching in Selma. We're not forced by law to live in the same neighborhoods or go to the same schools anymore. A generation has reached adulthood without ever experiencing the in-your-face racism of the Jim Crow era. There are black families who have had multigenerational middle-class success, and black families trapped in multigenerational poverty and dysfunction.

Black radio is one of the places where all the varied segments of black America still come together. It's a true community medium, even if what we still call "the black community" is, for most purposes, best thought of as plural.

But Thursday's protest needed more than the right medium, it needed the right message. When a local prosecutor in a small Southern town is confronted with a racial clash and he gives the whites a mild slap on the wrist while trying his best to send the blacks to prison, there aren't many black Americans who feel they can enjoy the luxury of indifference.

We don't see that many instances of overt, unapologetic, separate-and-unequal racial discrimination these days, thank goodness. Let's hope we never see another. Because when something like Jena happens, we're reminded, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his letter from the Birmingham jail, that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." And we're reminded that however diverse we are, to some people we all look alike.

La. Protests Hark Back to '50s, '60s
Friday September 21, 2007 2:01 AM
By MARY FOSTER
Associated Press Writer
JENA, La. (AP) - Drawn by a case tinged with one of the most hated symbols of Old South racism - a hangman's noose tied in an oak tree - thousands of protesters rallied Thursday against what they see as a double standard of prosecution for blacks and whites.

The plight of the so-called Jena Six became a flashpoint for one the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

Old-guard lions like the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joined scores of college students bused in from across the nation who said they wanted to make a stand for racial equality just as their parents did in the 1950s and '60s. ``It's not just about Jena, but about inequalities and disparities around the country,'' said Stephanie Brown, 26, national youth director for the NAACP, who estimated about 2,000 college students were among the throngs of mostly black protesters who overwhelmed this tiny central Louisiana town.

But the teens' case galvanized demonstrators as few legal cases have in recent years. The cause of Thursday's demonstrations dates to August 2006, when a black Jena High School student asked at a student assembly whether blacks could sit under a shade tree that was a frequent gathering place for whites. He was told yes. But nooses appeared in the tree the next day. Three white students were suspended but not criminally prosecuted. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said this week he could find no state law covering the act.

Brown said the Jena case resonates with the college-aged crowd because they aren't much older than the six youths charged. Many of the student protesters had been sharing information about the case through Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking Web sites.

Jackson, who led a throng of people three blocks long to the courthouse with an American flag resting on his shoulder, likened the demonstration to the marches on Selma and the Montgomery bus boycott. But even he was not entirely sure why Jena became the focal point. ``You can never quite tell,'' he said. ``Rosa Parks was not the first to sit in the front of the bus. But the sparks hit a dry field.''

The noose incident was followed by fights between blacks and whites, culminating in December's attack on white student Justin Barker, who was knocked unconscious. According to court testimony, his face was swollen and bloodied, but he was able to attend a school function that same night.

Six black teens were arrested. Five were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder - charges that have since been reduced for four of them. The sixth was booked as a juvenile on sealed charges.

Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but ``the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people.''

People began massing for the demonstrations before dawn Thursday, jamming the two-lane highway leading into town and parking wherever they could. State police estimated the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000. Organizers said they believe it drew as many as 50,000.
Demonstrators gathered at the local courthouse, a park, and the yard at Jena High where the tree once stood (it was cut down in July). At times the town resembled a giant festival, with people setting up tables of food and drink and some dancing while a man beat on a drum.

Sharpton admonished the crowd to remain peaceful, and there were no reports of trouble. State police could be seen chatting amicably with demonstrators at the courthouse.

In Washington, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he would hold hearings on the case, though he did not set a date or say if the prosecutor would be called to testify.

Walters, the district attorney, has usually declined to discuss the case publicly. But on the eve of the demonstrations, he denied the charges against the teens were race-related and lamented that Barker, the victim of the beating, has been reduced to ``a footnote'' while protesters generate sympathy for his alleged attackers.

President Bush said he understood the emotions and the FBI was monitoring the situation. ``The events in Louisiana have saddened me,'' the president told reporters at the White House. ``All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice.''

While Jena Six supporters were overwhelmingly black, young whites were also present. ``I think what happened here was disgusting and repulsive to the whole state,'' said Mallory Flippo, a white college student from Shreveport. ``I think it reflected badly on our state and how it makes it seem we view black people. I don't feel that way, so I thought I should be here.''

Other rallies in support of the black teens were held elsewhere, including Oklahoma City, where about 500 people gathered. ``It is time for us to express our outrage that such a blatant injustice should happen,'' said Roosevelt Milton, Oklahoma City NAACP president. ``I'm just glad people are starting to stand up for what is right,'' said Kiara Andrews, 15, of the Oklahoma City suburb of Midwest City.

In Jena, many white residents expressed anger at the way news organizations portrayed their town of 3,000 people. ``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.''

Mychal Bell, now 17, is the only one of the defendants to be tried. He was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, but his conviction was tossed out last week by a state appeals court that said Bell, who was 16 at the time of the beating, could not be tried as an adult on that charge.

He remained in jail pending an appeal by prosecutors. An appellate court on Thursday ordered a hearing to be held within three days on his request for release. The other five defendants are free on bond.

A group of about a dozen white residents and black demonstrators engaged in an animated but not angry exchange during the march. Whites asked blacks if they were aware of Bell's criminal record. Blacks replied that Jena High administrators mishandled the incidents.

Another white resident, Bill Williamson, 59, said he tried to convince visitors that the town was being treated unfairly and that Bell belonged in jail. ``I think we changed one man's mind,'' he said. ``But most of these people don't want to hear.''

As she trudged up a hill to a rally at a park, 63-year-old Elizabeth Redding of Willingboro, N.J., remembered marching at Selma, Ala., when she was in her 20s. ``I am a great-grandmother now. I'm doing this for my great-grandchildren,'' she said.

Alecea Rush, 21, a senior at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, said her grandmother used to tell her stories about the civil rights movement, including one in which she witnessed a lynching in Oklahoma City. ``I thought about every one of those stories being out here today,'' Rush said. ``I never really felt the significance until today.''

Associated Press writers Errin Haines in Atlanta and Michael Kunzelman in Jena contributed to this story.

Old-fashioned march shows support
RALLY DRAWS THOUSANDS
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."
Contributing: The Associated Press 

Protesting racist justice: Louisiana state troopers protect thousands of marchers led by the Rev Al Sharpton (centre) and Melissa, mother of Mychal Bell who is accused of bashing a racist white student. Picture: AP

From left, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee D-Tx., Melissa Bell, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Rep. Maxine Waters D-Calif., arrive at the rally before a march in support of the Jena Six in Jena today.(AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

AP - Thu Sep 20, 12:23 PM ET
Byant Purvis, left, Dominique Sharpton, and Carwin Jones link arms after a march in support of the 'Jena Six' in Jena, La., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. Sharpton is a daughter of the the Rev. Al Sharpton. Purvis and Jones are two of the 'Jena Six'--six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate. Five of the teens were initially charged with attempted murder, but that charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Melissa Bell, center, wipes her eyes as Rev. Al Sharpton, left speaks before a march in support of the Jena Six in Jena, La., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007. Behind her is Bryant Purvis, center and Carwin Jones right, two of the Jena Six.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Blacks protest over racism and rights in deep South (AFP)
RACIAL tensions at a Louisiana school after white students hung three nooses from a "white tree", yesterday culminated in an anti-racism march by up to 20,000.

The protesters were furious that the students, who hung up the nooses after some black students dared to sit under the tree last September, were not punished.

They were incensed that six black students were charged with attempted murder after bashing a white student. The white student was bashed unconscious in December, but was able to go to an event at Jena High a few hours later.

The bashing followed months of inter-racial fights on and off campus after the nooses were hung up. Someone lit a fire in the school after an administrator overturned the principal's recommendation to expel the three white students responsible for the noose threat.
At yesterday's march, reminiscent of the 1950s civil rights movement, protesters chanted "No Justice! No Peace!". Many touched the stump of the 'white tree'.
 
Civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton told CNN: "It's amazing. You see the beginning of a movement that will deal with the criminal justice system in this country,".

After most of the fights, the white students escaped any criminal charges. But the black students, known as the Jena Six, were charged with attempted murder, although the charges were later reduced. All but one of them are free on bail. The sixth, Mychal Bell, has been unable to post $90,000 bail.

President George W Bush said yesterday: "The events in Louisiana have saddened me. And I understand the emotions. . . . All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice."

Tina Jones, mother of one of the six, Carwin Jones, said: "It's not equal. The black people get the harsher extent of the law whereas white people get a slap on the wrist."

District attorney Reed Walters said the case "is not and never has been about race." He said the hanging up of the nooses had been an awful "vicious and crude statement" but he could not prosecute because it did not qualify as a hate-crime.~ AFP

Sharpton leads huge protest in Louisiana
The Independent (UK)
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 21 September 2007
It felt like a throwback to the heyday of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. In the early hours of yesterday morning, hundreds of cars, buses and trucks carrying students, black activists and outraged citizens from halfway across the United States converged on the tiny town of Jena, deep in the Louisiana backwoods, to demand justice for six black teenagers put through the legal wringer over a racially tinged schoolyard fight.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the town, whose population numbers just over 3,000, to demand the immediate release of one of the boys, who has been in prison for almost a year, and exoneration for the other five, who face charges of attempted murder after they punched a white kid in the face and knocked him out. The kid was up and about again in a couple of hours.

The case of the "Jena Six" has cast a spotlight on the latent racism of the Deep South and sparked indignation like nothing since a black man was picked up at random, tied to the back of a car and dragged to death by three white men in Jasper, Texas, nine years ago.

To the protesters who converged on Jena yesterday from as far afield as Detroit and Los Angeles, it felt like a re-enactment of the Freedom Rides of the early 1960s in which civil rights campaigners, both black and white, descended on Washington to demand an end to segregation. Headline speakers at the rally included two former presidential candidates, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

The local authorities declared a state of emergency and asked hundreds of armed police to come to Jena to maintain order. When the police slowed down the incoming traffic, hundreds of protesters "all of them dressed in black" simply left their vehicles and walked to the town.

A popular syndicated black radio host, Michael Baisden, has been instrumental in rallying support for the cause with his broadcasts and an energetic Internet campaign. He said: "The protest in Jena is not an attack on white people but is against a system that has failed us all. It is not about black and white, but about what is wrong and what is right."

The trouble began a year ago, when a group of black students complained about a so-called "white tree" on the yard of Jena High School and chose to sit under it in protest. The next day, three nooses appeared on the tree â€" a clear reference to the lynch-mob anti-black hostility of the Ku Klux Klan during the segregation era.

School authorities dismissed the noose episode as a "childish prank", prompting the boys who would later become known as the Jena Six to stage a much bigger protest under the tree.

The Jena district attorney, Reed Walters, then addressed an emergency school assembly and warned the protesters that he could "take away your lives with a stroke of my pen".

The atmosphere at Jena High then turned to pure poison. When one of the Jena Six turned up at a mostly white party in December, he was punched in the face, kicked and hit with beer bottles. Nobody was arrested or disciplined for that attack. The next day, the six were confronted outside a convenience store by a white assailant with a shotgun. The assailant was not charged, but the boys. who successfully wrested the gun out of his hands. were later charged with theft.

Two days after that the six turned on Justin Barker in the school yard. The district attorney, used the full weight of the law charging them with second-degree murder as an excuse to prosecute them as adults.

So far, just one of the six, Mychal Bell, has been prosecuted. Jailed since last December "he could not afford bail set at $90,000" Bell was convicted of aggravated assault in June and was due to be sentenced yesterday hence the choice of date for the protest.

Last week, a federal appeals court threw out his conviction, saying he should never have been tried as an adult, but the authorities in Jena have not released him. The district attorney has not yet indicated if he intends to take the appeal court ruling to a higher court.
Rev Sharpton, speaking from Jena yesterday, described the case as a "raw disparity of justice".

'SOUTHERN INJUSTICE'
NY POST
By MARY FOSTER, AP, with additional reporting by Frankie Edozien
September 21, 2007 -- Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets of tiny Jena, La., yesterday in support of six black teens initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

The crowd broke into chants of "Free the Jena Six" as the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the local courthouse with relatives of the jailed teens.

Sharpton said that he and members of Congress will press the House Judiciary Committee next week to summon the district attorney to explain his actions.

Sharpton also said he planned a November march in Washington. "What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice," Sharpton said in an interview. "Our fathers in the 1960s had to penetrate the Kennedy, and Johnson administrations. We have to do the same thing."

The six black teens were charged a few months after three white teens were accused of hanging nooses in a tree on their high-school grounds. The white teens were suspended from school but not prosecuted.

Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder. That charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.

The beating victim, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face swollen and bloodied, although he was able to attend a school function that night.

Several hundred supporters of the black teens also rallied on the steps of New York's City Hall yesterday. "It seems to me we have had this conversation in too many places," said Councilman James Sanders (D-Brooklyn). "We don't have to go to Louisiana. All you have to do is look around."

"We should examine every case that DA had. He didn't become racist overnight," Sanders added. "He has been practicing his apartheid for years."

Thousands descend on town to support 'Jena Six'
The case of black teenagers hit with heavy charges after beating a white classmate has attracted national attention.
By Jenny Jarvie and Richard Fausset
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 21, 2007

JENA, LA. -- In a scene reminiscent of civil rights protests of decades past, thousands of protesters descended on this small Southern town Thursday to peacefully decry what they said was the unfair treatment of six black teenagers charged with beating a white schoolmate.

The case of the Jena Six, as the defendants have come to be known, attracted a cast of famous black leaders, but many said the crowd was called by fresh chorus of voices -- among them bloggers, black radio personalities and Web-networked college students.

Organizers said the crowd swelled to 50,000; state police said it was too spread out to count. As the visitors began pouring into this mostly white central Louisiana community of 3,000 at daybreak, they encountered a ghost town: The courthouse, the high school and almost all the businesses -- from the barber to the bail bondsman -- were closed.

It was not long, though, before the protesters, many of them African American and many wearing black T-shirts, filled the two-lane highway through downtown and residential streets, chanting and holding placards that read "Free the Jena Six" and "Enough Is Enough."

On the steps of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, speakers described the case as an example of an American justice system that continued to treat African Americans unfairly, despite the progress made since the days of Jim Crow.

"In the 20th century, we had to fight for where we sit on the bus," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who arrived at the courthouse with members of the defendants' families. "Now we have to fight on how we sit in the courtroom."

Added the Rev. Jesse Jackson: "There is a Jena in every town, a Jena in every state."

That kind of talk was met with disdain by residents of Jena (pronounced JEE-nuh), many of whom stayed indoors for the day. Some who ventured outside said their town had been unfairly singled out, by both protesters and media, as a backwoods redoubt of racial animosity.

"They have cast us a bunch of ignorant, racist bumpkins," said Ray Hodges, an automotive technology teacher at Jena High School. "It's about as far from the truth as you can get. There is racism in Jena, but it's not only in Jena, it's not only in Louisiana, it's not only in the South. It's an American thing."

"I actually heard a girl shout 'Shame on Jena,' " said Pam Sharp, 43, who sat in a plastic chair as the procession filed past her house. "I shouted back, 'No, shame on you!' " How can they include the whole town? That's the shame."

For Sharp, the victim in the case was Justin Barker, the 17-year-old white student who was kicked in the head and knocked unconscious.

"Protesters don't want to talk about him," she said.

At a White House news conference Thursday morning, President Bush said the events in Jena had "saddened" him.

"I understand the emotions," Bush said. "The Justice Department and the FBI are monitoring the situation down there, and all of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice."

Sharpton told the Associated Press that he and other black leaders were trying to persuade the House Judiciary Committee to call Jena's district attorney, Reed Walters, to Capitol Hill to explain his actions.

Walters, in a news conference Wednesday, said the case was not about race but about "finding justice for an innocent victim, and holding people accountable for their actions."

To some black observers, however, the Jena story -- studded with explosive symbols from an age of more widespread and blatant racism -- was too volatile to be ignored.

The trouble started last September when three white students hung nooses from a tree where whites traditionally congregated at the local high school. The students responsible were suspended. Later, part of the school mysteriously burned down.

Racial tensions reportedly flared on campus, and in December, the six black students allegedly beat up Barker. He was taken to the hospital and treated for injuries to his ears, face and eye; later that night, he attended a ring ceremony at school.

The black students were arrested and kicked out of school, and five of them were charged with attempted second-degree murder. (The sixth was charged as a juvenile and was recently allowed to return to classes.) The charges were later reduced. One of the defendants, Mychal Bell, was tried and found guilty of aggravated battery. His conviction was thrown out this month, though, because he was tried as an adult rather than a juvenile. He remains in custody while prosecutors decided whether to file new charges against him.

The other defendants are awaiting trial dates and face up to 22 years in prison.

To Jasmyne Cannick -- a blogger and black activist from Los Angeles -- such details convinced her that something was clearly amiss in Jena. In recent days, she said, she has devoted much of her blogging to the case, and encouraged supporters to go to Thursday's protest or wear black in their hometowns.

Cannick and other bloggers linked to an online petition that had more than 380,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon. Addressed to the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, the petition called the treatment of the young men a "gross miscarriage of justice" and demanded a federal investigation. Some of the signatories left searing comments.

"This case is so racist, it's not even funny," wrote Omonike Ayorinde of Illinois. "As a black woman, a noose hanging from a tree is NOT just some 'silly little prank.' My heart and prayers are with these boys and their families."

Members of the social networking website Facebook formed "Free the Jena 6" groups. On the video site YouTube, users posted snippets of news broadcasts and footage from local rallies in support of the defendants. Some delivered homemade protest raps.

"Jena Six Louisiana, it's so clear -- racism still alive and kickin' down there," rhymed a man who called himself ConsciousL.

In the radio industry, Thursday's protest was seen as a sign of the growing influence of black talk show hosts. Their popularity has been growing in recent years in concert with the general rise of the talk radio phenomenon, according to Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, an industry magazine.

That power has been evident in Atlanta, where radio station WAMJ-FM (102.5) delivers hours of black-oriented talk radio programming. Derek Harper, the station's program director, said that in the last month, most of the station's syndicated talkers -- including Steve Harvey, Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden and Warren Ballentine -- had picked up on the story and made it a major issue.

Ballentine was among a number of radio personalities broadcasting live from Jena on Thursday. He said he had been rallying black people around the issue since learning about it in June.

On his show, he recalled, "I said, 'I'm calling out attorneys, ballplayers, rappers -- you got to step to the plate! . . . Where are you at when our kids need you?' "

That sense of urgency and outrage is not shared by all African Americans, however.

Joe Hicks, the former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Los Angeles chapter, accused some black leaders of rushing to judgment. He said the prosecutor must have had a good reason to assume the victim's life was in jeopardy. He also noted that the final verdicts had not been reached.

"I'm troubled by what appears to be a great deal of racial opportunism on the part of some of the orthodox civil rights leadership," said Hicks, who has criticized such leaders from the right in recent years. "They are rushing to condemn what's going on in Jena, and yet some of these guys were clamoring for the conviction of the guys involved in the Duke rape case.

"They're picking up a lot of rocks, and lifted up Jena and decided, 'This is a representation of what black people are facing in America,' " he added. "I don't think that's the state of American race relations at all."

Such sentiments were rare Thursday on the streets of Jena. Instead, protesters listened to rapper Mos Def and a reading from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Another man played African drums. Nearby, Bob Marley tunes blasted from a red truck.

Closer to the school, some protesters held hands in a circle. Others prayed. But most spent their time holding cellphones, digital cameras and camcorders -- recording themselves and their friends in front of the paths the Jena Six walked, the classrooms where the Jena Six sat, the football field where some of the Jena Six played.

The tree at the center of the controversy was cut down over the summer, but that did not stop protesters like A.J. Walker, who photographed her daughter at the patch of dirt where it once stood.

"I want my children to be part of history," said Walker, a black police officer from Houston. "I want to show them they have to stand for something."

United, they march
Dallas Morning News
Texans join thousands rallying for justice for black teens
12:00 AM CDT on Friday, September 21, 2007
By SCOTT FARWELL / The Dallas Morning News
JENA, La. -- The scene was chaotic and celebratory. One moment, a chant would break out "No justice, no peace!" The next, bongo players would inspire dancing from the crowd surging by.

Tens of thousands of protesters from Texas and across the nation poured into this small Louisiana town Thursday in a show of support for six black teenagers charged with beating a white classmate.

Five of the "Jena Six" face felony charges, and one remains in custody after a year of racial tension in the mostly white town (pronounced JEE-nuh). Their case has come to symbolize what many believe is racial bias in the nation's criminal justice system.

And demonstrators, including about 1,100 from the Dallas area, came from across the nation for a few hours of rallying solidarity in what organizers and some participants hope will launch another mass movement for civil rights.

"It's our turn now to do the things our parents and grandparents did," said Chance Lundy, a Dallas resident and one of the organizers of the group "Tx Supports Jena Six." "They call us the lost generation, but we're showing here that we're ready to expose injustice wherever it occurs."

Crowds, made up mostly of blacks, young and old, began filling the town at daylight. Some wore black T-shirts that read, "We are the Jena Six." Others carried black flags proclaiming, "Enough is Enough."

The LaSalle Parish Courthouse, a nearby park and the high school were gathering spots. Protesters clogged city streets; a few climbed trees, pumping their fists in the air; and music blared as the town of about 3,000 people took on a festival atmosphere of sorts. Schools and businesses closed for the day.

A man with a bullhorn standing on top of a recreational vehicle called out to those passing by. "Three buses from D.C.," he said. "Where are you all from? Mobile, Alabama? In the house. LA," he shouted. "Omaha? I didn't think there were any black folks in Omaha."

Police officers "local and state" generally stayed behind security fences, some watching the peaceful scenes with arms folded across their chests.

What residents think
One white man who lives in Jena leaned on a pickup at a car dealership, watching the flow of people. "Everything we say gets twisted and used against us," the man said, guarding his words and declining to give his name. "I am not going to say anything to the media. But I can tell you, nobody in Jena wants this."

Jena residents John Poland and his son Mike, who are white, had contempt in their eyes as protesters walked past. "I think they're the ones who are spreading hate," said 18-year-old Mike, a recent U.S. Army enlistee, who was wearing a Confederate flag-themed necklace. "I think that they're the racists."

He said he had to choke back the urge to pick a fight with one of the demonstrators who snickered at his dad. "Those people think they're somebody," he said. "I don't think it's right. I just felt like getting up and hitting one of them."

His father offered a more measured tone. "I am not saying Jena doesn't need to change," he said. "I'm just saying it's not the racially prejudiced town it's been made out to be."

Thursday's rally, he said, was more about race-baiting than resolving tensions in the town. "The way we see it" any time you see Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or Martin Luther King III come to town, they only mean to fan the flames. That's how they advance their agenda, keep the tension up and make money."

The day's events drew on a racial conflict that began more than a year ago with the hanging of three nooses from an oak tree on the high school campus.

Three white students were suspended for the act. Fights followed, with whites beating a black student and five of six black students for a time facing attempted second-degree murder charges in the attack on their white classmate. Those charges were later reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. The sixth student's case is sealed because he is charged as a juvenile.

District Attorney Reed Walters, who is prosecuting the case, said Wednesday that race had nothing to do with the charges.

He said he didn't charge the white students accused of hanging the nooses because he could find no Louisiana law under which they could be charged. In the beating case, he said, four of the defendants were of adult age under Louisiana law and the only juvenile charged as an adult, Mychal Bell, had a prior record that included two assault convictions in juvenile court.

Mr. Bell, who was 16 at the time of the attack on the white student, is the only one of the Jena Six to be tried so far. A state appeals court overturned his conviction last week, saying he should not have been tried as an adult. While the other five defendants are free on bail, he remains in custody as prosecutors prepare an appeal.

A state appeals court on Thursday ordered that a hearing be held no later than Monday to determine why Mr. Bell is still in jail and whether he should be released.

In a joint statement, the Rev. Al Sharpton and Mr. Bell's parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, said they were hopeful that the appeals court's decision would be "a positive development toward the freeing of Mychal Bell, but there are no guarantees."

Thursday's rally, heavily promoted on black Web sites, blogs, radio and publications, had been planned to coincide with Mr. Bell's sentencing, but organizers decided to press ahead after the conviction was thrown out.

The demonstrators included large numbers of civil rights movement veterans as well as college students from across the region who weren't alive in the 1960s.

Elizabeth Redding, 63, of Willingboro, N.J., said she marched in Selma, Ala., when she was in her 20s. "This is worse, because we didn't get the job done," she said as she walked up a hill leading to the park rally. "I never believed that this would be going on in 2007."

Civil rights leaders
Rolling cheers welcomed Mr. Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Dennis Courtland Hayes, interim president and CEO of the NAACP, told another gathering: "People are saying, 'That's enough, and we're not taking it any more.' "

Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil rights leader, described the scene as reminiscent of earlier civil rights struggles. He said that punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants but that "the justice system isn't applied the same to all crimes and all people."

A crowd chanted "Free the Jena Six" as Mr. Sharpton arrived at the courthouse with family members of the charged teens.

Thursday's protests could be the beginning of a new civil rights movement against judicial disparities, he said. "What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice," he said. "Our fathers in the 1960s had to penetrate the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. We have to do the same thing."

At his news conference Thursday, President Bush spoke publicly for the first time about "the events in Louisiana." "I understand the emotions," he said. "The Justice Department and the FBI are monitoring the situation down there, and all of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice."

In Dallas, Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House megachurch said in a prepared statement that he was donating $6,000 to the Jena Six defense fund.

"Helping can be done in many ways," Bishop Jakes said of fighting injustice. "Those who have no resources can give time or volunteer to help. Most of us can do something."

Sharpton, Baisden Broadcast in Downtown Alexandria
News Channel 5's Joel Massey
Thursday, September 20, 2007

In downtown Alexandria the steps of city hall were another rallying point for the supporters of the Jena six.
 
Al Sharpton and radio personality Michael Baisden broadcast their national radio shows live. There were about 500 people downtown when the broadcast started at noon and that number has grown steadily since then. We spoke with a college student from Little Rock, Arkansas who came down for the event. She is a regular listener to Sharpton and Baisden.

Daily News 1
DA: Jena case 'never about race'; Sharpton preps for protest
BY RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thousands of protesters neared and the embattled district attorney accused of trumping up charges against six black teens defended himself.

The rhetoric over the case of the "Jena 6" escalated on both sides as buses packed with demonstrators from around the nation rolled closer.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson accused Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of "acting like he's white" for not speaking out more forcefully about the treatment of the black teens initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white student. (click here for more)

______________

Thousands Turn Out for Jena 6 Rally
Associated Press
Thursday, September 20, 2007

JENA, La. (AP)_ Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets of this little Louisiana town Thursday in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.

The crowd broke into chants of "Free the Jena Six" as the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the local courthouse with family members of the jailed teens. (click here for more)

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
  1:30 P.M. (EST) / 12:30 CST
Senator Hillary Clinton will appear on Rev. Al Sharpton's nationally syndicated radio show to discuss the Jena Six case. The interview can be heard online at 
 www.sharptontalk.net
 
SEPTEMBER 20, 2007
  5:00 A.M.
Protesters assemble at the bus staging area and board buses at the Alexandria Coliseum
(5600 Coliseum Blvd)
6:00 A.M.
Bus Caravan to LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, Louisiana
7:00 A.M.
Rally in front of the Courthouse featuring Rev. Al Sharpton, Michael Baisden, Martin Luther King, III, Actor Tyler Perry and many others
7:30 A.M.
March from LaSalle Parish Courthouse through Jena, Louisiana, and then caravan back to Alexandria, Louisiana 11:00 A.M. 
Live rally at the Downtown Ampitheater broadcast to millions of listeners on Rev. Al Sharpton's nationally syndicated radio show and Michael Baisden's nationally syndicated radio show
 (Murray Street at the River, Alexandria, Louisiana)

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DAILY NEWS
Sharpton to lead 50K protesting race bias in Louisiana town
BY RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, September 19th 2007, 8:54 AM


Marcus Bell, whose son Mychal has been in jail since January, unable to make $90,000 bond, dons shirt touting rally about treatment of Jena 6.

JENA, La. - The promised arrival of 50,000 demonstrators to this rural town is unnerving locals who fear the protest over the treatment of six black teens will spark chaos.
Most shop owners won't even open tomorrow during the march, noting that demonstrators will outnumber residents roughly 20 to 1. They fear the influx will cripple the six-traffic-lights downtown, which consists mostly of single-story boutiques, banks and eateries such as the Burger Barn and the Brisket House. (click here for more)

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Tiny Louisiana Town Gears Up for Protest March
Associated Press
Wednesday, September 19, 2007; 11:08 AM

JENA, La. (AP) -- Thousands are expected in this tiny central Louisiana town Thursday to protest the treatment of six black teenagers arrested in the beating of a white classmate -- and they will march past the stump of a tree that became the focal point of the current racial tensions.

The tree on the campus of Jena High School had been a gathering spot for white students. After a black student asked school officials if blacks could sit there too, three nooses were found hanging from the tree. Amid the racial turmoil that followed, the tree was cut down. (click here for more)

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'Jena 6' teen seeks bail as race roils rural Louisiana case
BY BILL HUTCHINSON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 17th 2007

All eyes in a feud that has split blacks and whites in a rural Louisiana town will be on a courtroom today where one of the black youths dubbed "The Jena Six" will ask for freedom.

Mychal Bell, 16, the last of six black teens still in jail for assaulting a white youth, will request to be released on bail after an appeals court Friday tossed his conviction by an all-white jury. The court ruled Bell should have never been tried as an adult. Bell , the only one of the six to be tried, was facing a 15-year sentence. (click here for more)

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Jena 6 Teen's Conviction Tossed
Charges Have Brought Widespread Criticism
September 14, 2007

NEW ORLEANS -- A state appeals court on Friday threw out the only remaining conviction against one of the black teenagers accused in the beating of a white schoolmate in the racially tense north Louisiana town of Jena.

Mychal Bell, 17, should not have been tried as an adult, the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal said in tossing his conviction on aggravated battery, for which he was to have been sentenced Thursday. He could have gotten 15 years in prison. (click here for more)