From: Adjie Henderson
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 9:27
AM
To: Ana Vasovic; Angela Luna;
clay-scott; Elizabeth Zoiner; Janet Robertson; kengber; lolita; luz; marcia;
rob; shana; Woldine
Subject: FYI
This is from my friend who is a civil
rights lawyer
From:
[log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
I have pasted a story about the Jena
6 below--
As part of the organizing around these
cases, an email was sent asking people to please send their support by writing
a letter to Mychal Bell
Inmate, A-Dorm
LaSalle Correctional Center
15976 Highway 165
Olla, Louisiana 71465-4801
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220
Six black students at Jena High School in
Central Louisiana were arrested last December after a school fight in which a
white student was beaten and suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The
six black students were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy. They face
up to 100 years in prison without parole. The fight took place amid mounting
racial tension after a black student sat under a tree in the schoolyard where
only white students sat. The next day three nooses were hanging from the tree.
[includes rush transcript]
Jena is a small town nestled deep in the
heart of Central Louisiana. Until recently, you may well have never heard of
it. But this rural town of less than 4,000 people has become a focal point in
the debate around issues of race and justice in this country.
Last December, six black students at Jena High
School were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was beaten
and suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The six black students were
charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. They face up to 100
years in prison without parole. The Jena Six, as they have come to be known,
range in age from 15 to 17 years old.
Just over a week ago, an all-white jury took
less than two days to convict 17 year-old Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena
Six to go on trial. He was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy
charges and now faces up to 22 years in prison.
Black residents say that race has always been an
issue in Jena, which is 85 percent white, and that the charges against the Jena
Six are no exception.
The origins of the story can be traced back to
early September when a black high school student requested permission to sit
under a tree in the schoolyard where usually only white students sat. The next day
three nooses were found hanging from the tree.
Democracy Now! correspondent Jacquie Soohen has
more on the story from Jena.
Jena 6 Defense Committee
PO BOX 2798
Jena, LA 71342
This transcript is available
free of charge. However, donations help us provide closed captioning for the
deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous
contribution.
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more...
AMY GOODMAN: Jena is a small town nestled deep in the heart of Central
Louisiana. Until recently, you may well never have heard of it. But this rural
town of less than 4,000 has become a focal point in the debate around issues of
race and justice in this country.
Last December, six black students at Jena High School
were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was beaten and
suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The six black students were charged
with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. They face up to 100 years
in prison without parole.
The Jena 6, as they have come to be known, range
in age from fifteen to seventeen. Just over a week ago, an all-white jury took
less than two days to convict seventeen-year-old Mychal Bell, the first of the
Jena 6 to go on trial. He was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy
charges and now faces up to twenty-two years in prison. Black residents say
race has always been an issue in Jena, which is 85% white and that the charges
against the Jena 6 are no exception.
The origins of the story can be traced back to
early September, when a black high school student requested permission to sit
under a tree in the schoolyard, where usually only white students sat. The next
day, three nooses were found hanging from the tree.
Democracy Now! correspondent Jacquie Soohen has more on the story from Jena.
JESSE
BEARD: Black girls over there,
black boys right here. Some black people standing right -- a couple. All the
band geeks right there. White folks under the tree. And then you might --
it’s like…
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Jesse Beard, a freshman
in high school and one of Jena 6, took us to where the nooses were hung.
JESSE
BEARD: One day, I just wanted
to -- maybe the first, second day, we started riding the bus, me and Robert. And
we came through, and I seen something hanging there. I told Robert. He looked
at it. He’s like, “Them nooses right there.” He was getting
mad. Everybody was getting -- I started getting mad. By the time everybody
came, they was trying to cut them down.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Robert Bailey, seventeen
years old and a safety receiver for the school football team, is another of the
Jena 6 facing life behind bars. He described his reaction to the nooses.
ROBERT
BAILEY: It was in the early
morning. I seen them hanging. I’m thinking the KKK, you know, were
hanging nooses. They want to hang somebody. Real nooses, the ones you see on TV
are the kind of nooses they were, the ones they play in the movies and they
were hanging all the people, you know, and the thing dropped, those were the
kind of nooses they were. I know it was somebody white that hung the nooses in
the tree. You know, I don’t know another way to put it, but, you know, I
was disappointed, because, you know, we do little pranks -- you know, toilet
paper, that’s a prank, you know what I’m saying? Paper all over the
square, all the pranks they used to do, that’s pranks. Nooses hanging
there -- nooses ain't no prank.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: The school’s
superintendent dismissed the nooses as a prank, and after three days’
suspension, the three white students who hung the nooses were allowed back to
school. Caseptla Bailey, Robert's mother, said the school did not inform the
parents of the incident.
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: The school didn’t
tell me. I didn’t know that it happened, so therefore I didn’t call
to find out what happened on that particular day.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: To Caseptla Bailey, the
meaning of the nooses was clear.
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: It meant hatred, to the
other race. It meant that “We’re going to kill you, you're going to
die.” You know, it sent a message: “This is not the place for you
to sit. This is not your damn tree. Do not sit here. You know, you ought to
remain in your place, know your place and stay in your place. You’re out
of your boundaries.” And the first thing now that the sheriff department
or that the chief of police want to say that -- as well as the superintendent
-- one had nothing to do with the other. Now, come on now!
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Most people we spoke to
in Jena’s white community, however, see no connection between the
students’ charges and race. Barbara Murphy, the town librarian, claims
there isn’t a race problem in Jena.
BARBARA
MURPHY: We don’t have a
race problem. It’s not black against white. It’s crime. The nooses?
I don’t even know why they were there, what they were supposed to mean.
There’s pranks all the time, of one type or another, going on. And it
just didn’t seem to be racist to me.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: A few days after the
nooses were hung, the entire black student body staged an impromptu
demonstration, crowding underneath the tree during lunch hour. Justin Purvis,
the student who first asked to sit underneath the tree, described how the
protest came about.
JUSTIN
PURVIS: It was like, the first
beginning, in the courtyard, they said, “Y’all want to go stand
under the tree?” We said, “Yeah.” They said, “If you
go, I’ll go. If you go, I’ll go.” One person went, the next
person went, everybody else just went.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: The school responded to
the protest by calling police and the district attorney. At an assembly the
same day, the District Attorney Reed Walters, accompanied by armed policeman,
addressed the students. Substitute teacher Michelle Rogers, one of the few
black teachers at the school, was there. She recalls the DA's words to the
assembled high schoolers.
MICHELLE
ROGERS: The kids didn't say
anything. They were listening. The kids were quiet. And so, District Attorney
Reed Walters, you know, proceeded to tell those kids that “I could end
your lives with the stroke of a pen.” And the kids were just -- it was
like in awe that the district -- you know, Reed Walters would tell these kids
that. He held a pen in his hand and told those kids that, “See this pen
in my hand? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen.”
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: A series of incidents
followed throughout the fall. In October, a black student was beaten for
entering a private all-white party. Later that month, a white student pulled a gun
on a group of black students at a gas station, claiming self-defense. The black
students wrestled the gun away and reported the incident to police. They were
charged with assault and robbery of the gun. No charges were ever filed against
the white students in either incident. Then, in late November, someone tried to
burn down the high school, creating even more tension.
Four days later, a white
student was allegedly attacked in a school fight. The victim was taken to
hospital and released shortly with a concussion. He attended a school function
that evening. Six black students were charged with attempted second-degree
murder and conspiracy to commit murder, on charges that leave them facing
between twenty and one hundred years in jail. The defendants, ranging in age
from fifteen to seventeen, had their bonds set at between $70,000 and $138,000.
The attack was written up in the local paper as fact, and DA Reed Walters
published a statement in which he said, "When you are convicted, I will
seek the maximum penalty allowed by law."
MINISTER:
We have come today to stand against what
we consider to be a great evil.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Since their arrest, the
defendants’ families have been speaking out and fighting for the release
of their sons. Two of the six, including Mychal Bell, who was recently
convicted, were unable to make bond and have spent close to seven months in
jail to date.
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: No justice!
PROTESTERS:
No peace!
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: No justice!
PROTESTERS:
No peace!
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: No justice!
PROTESTERS:
No peace!
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Caseptla Bailey began
writing letters to state and national agencies, including the Department of
Justice, immediately after the charges were filed.
CASEPTLA
BAILEY: The first thing was
devastation. You know, I was down when it first happened. You know, I was very
devastated. I was hurt, upset, angry, mad, frustrated. You know, I had so many
emotions, crying a lot of nights, you know, trying to figure out where can I go
from here. You know, a lot of times when you're backed into a corner or
you’re backed into a wall, naturally you're going to come out fighting.
You know, you're not going to -- you’re either going to fall and die, or
you're going to come out fighting.
You know, I’m just
sending out these letters to anyone that would have a listening ear and to
anyone that, you know, I thought that might help the situation. That's how I
fight back, you know, by putting the pen to the paper.
They want to take these
kids -- my son, as well as all these other children -- lock them up, throw away
the key. You know, that's a tradition for black males. So they want to keep
that tradition going, because they want to keep institutionalized slavery alive
and well.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: At a friendly pickup
game of football, Caseptla’s son Robert shows off the skills that made
him a star player of the high school football team. Robert was in jail for over
two months before his mother was able to raise the money for her son's bond
using three pieces of property from different family members.
Seventeen-year-old Robert Bailey has no criminal record.
ROBERT
BAILEY: I ain’t got no
criminal record, nothing. I ain’t got no probation, community service or
nothing, nothing like that. The DA, he ain’t after finding the truth.
That’s what a DA’s for, to after find the truth, you know, of the
case. He’s just, you know, trying to put me up in a jail cell, for life.
Fifty years, twenty-five to a hundred years, you can just say
“forever.” Twenty years is forever, to me.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Robert wasn’t the
only one with a promising future. All of the Jena 6 were athletes, and five of
the six were on the high school football team. Marcus Jones, the father of
seventeen-year-old Mychal Bell, has a stack of scholarship offers for his son.
MARCUS
JONES: LSU, Southern Miss,
Ol’ Miss, University of New York…
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Mychal is a star running
back and a strong student who is being actively scouted by a number of
colleges.
MARCUS
JONES: We're not blaming the
victim for the charges or none of that. The DA is a racist DA. You know,
I’m not calling him out for being a racist. I’m calling him out as
being a racist due to his track record. The reason we is taking a stand for our
kids for what he’s not doing is right, ’cause, you know,
we’re tired of it, you know, ’cause if we, you know, we sat down
and lay back and let him railroad our kids, too, he’s going to continue
to do that to black people in this town. You know, so we have to take a stand
now. Somebody has to take a stand now. If not, he’s going to continue to
fill the prisons up with black people more and more.
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: Mr. Bell believes that
his son is learning a valuable lesson from this experience.
MARCUS
JONES: One of the best lessons
that my son could learn that’s one of the best lessons: to know what it
is to be black now. You know, if this don’t teach him what it is to be
black now, I don’t know what will. But he’s seventeen now. You
know, he’s got a lot of life left ahead of him. And the day he set foot
out of jail, I’m going to tell him, I’m going to tell him again,
“You know what it is to be black now. Here it is.”
JACQUIE
SOOHEN: For Democracy Now!, this is Jacquie Soohen,
reporting from Jena, Louisiana.
AMY GOODMAN: That piece is from an upcoming feature documentary by Big Noise
Films. Mychal Bell faces up to twenty-two years in prison when he’s
sentenced July 31st. The five other students await trial on charges of
attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. They face up to 100 years in
jail. When we come back from break, we’ll be joined by parents of three
of the Jena 6, as well as the journalist who broke the story nationally.-
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