Troops Out Now Coalition blog: NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE! FREE THE JENA 6! Eyewitness reports, Jena, LA., Sept. 20

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE! FREE THE JENA 6! Eyewitness reports, Jena, LA., Sept. 20

By Gloria Rubac

A militant, dignified and powerful sea of mostly African Americans filled almost every street in the small rural town of Jena, La., today to let the world know that Jim Crow injustice is not going to be tolerated any longer.

With chants of “Enough is enough--Free the Jena Six” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police!” throngs of people protested in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, on the lawn of the Jena High School, in a large city park and on many city streets.

They came from all over the United States, mostly from every single Southern state, by train, plane, bus, motorcycle and car, to support the Jena Six.

Dozens of historically Black colleges and universities had delegations, including Texas Southern University, Prairie View A & M University, Paul Quinn College, Dillard University, Spelman College, Grambling State University, Jackson State University, North Carolina Central University and Southern University.

Of the buses from Houston and surrounding areas, two were from Prairie View, three were from Texas Southern, and three had working people, students, youth and elders. Hundreds from Dallas caravanned with their churches, universities or groups of friends.

Many in Jena had never marched before but came with their school. Many others were working people who had taken a day off; a large number of them had participated in the 1960s civil rights marches and protests.

Some groups of families and elders sat in portable, lightweight chairs in groups of 10 to 25, talking about the Jena Six, eating homemade picnic lunches, and reminiscing about the struggles that brought about the victories of the civil rights movement. They eagerly accepted literature and signed petitions.

A large delegation from North Carolina Central University Law School sat together in maroon law school shirts, taking in all the activities with wide eyes. One young woman commented, “I thought this only happened in history books. And here I am!”

A middle-class Black family sat together in lawn chairs with a big sign that read “No justice, no peace—OKC” and had a large peace sign in the middle. When asked if the “OKC” meant Oklahoma City, they proudly said that they had driven all night from there to be a part of history and take a stand in support of the Jena Six.

Working Black ranchers from rural Florida attended. They said to tell everyone that Black ranchers were represented in Jena and emphasized that they not only owned their ranches but also worked them every day.

Folks from all over Louisiana attended, from big cities like Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lake Charles to small towns like Broussard, New Iberia, Bunkie, Wilson, Houma, Crowley and Opelousous.

Traditional civil rights organizations were well represented. Large groups carried NAACP signs from many cities. The SCLC also had hundreds of signs.

There were also members of the New Black Panther Party, the Millions More Movement, the National Black United Front, and many other activist and militant organizations.

People on top of a large white RV owned by Robert Clark of Monroe, La. spoke to the crowds all morning. A man recited Martin Luther King’s speech on Vietnam as well as his “I Have a Dream” speech from the 1963 march on Washington.

Supporters donated bail money all day for Mychal Bell, one of the Jena Six. Over $18,000 was collected in donations of $5, $10, $20 and $100. The crowd on that block cheered every time someone put a bill in the box. Clark gave their names and home city. When it was announced that over $18,000 had been raised and that they would try to bail out Mychal Bell that afternoon, the crowd went wild.

Because every street in Jena has only two small lanes, and because the courthouse rally had an inadequate sound system for such a huge crowd, each block began its own impromptu rallies, street meetings, drumming, second line dancing, picnics, reunions, conga lines and marches.

The mood of the crowd was very serious, militant and determined. Many conveyed the feeling that they knew the whole world was watching Jena and so they were careful to maintain discipline while being excited, angry and focused. Participants picked up every scrap of paper and every empty water bottle off lawns and streets.

Taking photos and videos was the order of the day. At the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement table, several people asked that the banner be held straighter as they snapped the shutter so folks at home could see who was there in Jena.

Two men from Mobile, Ala., held a big white banner. They asked people to sign it so they could send it to the Jena Six families. It read, “Free the Jena Six—Mobile, Alabama.” Hundreds of people signed with their names and hometowns.

At least a dozen different Jena Six tee shirts were being sold. Many organizations had come wearing their own originally designed shirts. Others sold shirts on the street. Some tee shirts depicted the virulent racism in Jena, by showing nooses or "The White Tree,” and some had quotes by noted civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. Over 90 percent of the crowd wore black, as requested by organizers.

Some sympathetic whites in Jena waved to the buses while sitting in their yards. One elderly man gave two thumbs up to the crowd and told them,” Thanks for coming!"

Despite the 90-degree heat and not a cloud in the sky, people were focused and unity was the theme. Everyone agreed that each state has its own Jena, that it isn’t just Louisiana. And all left with a determination to continue the fight, not only for the Jena Six but for justice, when they get back to their homes.

Gloria Rubac is from Houston where she is an organizer with the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

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EYEWITNESS REPORT, Jena, LA., Sept. 20

By Dianne Mathiowetz

There is probably no way to determine the exact number of people who filled the streets of Jena, La., for more than 12 hours today.

It was both a work and a school day in this small town in rural Louisiana, far from any major population center and accessible mainly by a two-lane road. Yet, from dawn until dusk, the scene in downtown Jena was one of an ever-flowing crowd of people wearing black tee shirts--people of all ages but of one mind: to demand justice now for six African-American teen-agers whose prosecution for a schoolyard fight with a white classmate illuminates the racial disparities endemic to the U.S. justice system.

It is clear to all that many, many thousands gathered in Jena. Was it 100,000, as some say? For sure, tens of thousands came representing hundreds of thousands; came demanding justice for the millions of African-American people throughout the country who suffer daily from racial discrimination, national oppression and racist profiling.

When millions of immigrants demonstrated on May 1, one year ago, to demand dignity and human rights, the corporate media, as usual, was oblivious to the massive mobilizations taking place in communities of color. Jena is no exception.

Arrogant in their ability to define what is news and smugly confident that people have been rendered incapable of acting in their own interests, the major television networks and newspapers scrambled to catch up with these historic actions.

A vital element is the role of the radio talk show hosts whose programs aired the issues concerning the community.

Michael Baisden, Tom Joyner and other nationally syndicated radio personalities played a major role in alerting Black communities across the country to the situation that was unfolding in Jena.

Many youth, especially on the campuses of historically Black colleges and universities, became educated about the case through the Internet. Blogs aroused students to mount demonstrations and rallies and teach-ins on their campuses as schools came into session this fall. The Color Of Change activists harnessed this technology to blast the case all over cyberspace.

The support of Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Nation of Islam, the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other national organizations and famous personalities were important in bringing the case to light and persisting, despite the lack of interest by the corporate media.

The grass-roots character of many of the organizers showed everywhere. Those who chartered and filled hundreds of buses were first-time demonstrators from colleges and universities; union members from Detroit's auto plants and Teamsters from Atlanta; church women, Black business people; parents; and neighborhood activists mostly from towns and cities across the South but also from the Northeast, Midwest, Southwest and West Coast.

Carloads of families and friends drove for hours, bringing children so they could be part of “making history."

Grey-haired seniors who had experienced the terror of Klan night-riders and lynchings during the 1960s; residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast who have survived criminal neglect and injury by the government during Katrina and Rita; mothers and fathers who can never escape worrying about whether their children will be victims of police brutality, all melded together in the courthouse square, in parks where parallel rallies were taking place, and along the streets in front of shuttered businesses.

The slogans on two of the most common signs explain why the protest defied all expectations: "Enough is enough" and "We are the Jena 6."

Distrust of the justice system, the presence of inequality every day decades after the passage of civil rights legislation, the ever-looming possible loss of employment, housing, healthcare and education, and the weight of endless war and occupation caused an eruption from below.

It was a remarkable day, not just in Jena but everywhere else that people rallied and marched in solidarity, wore black to work or school, and talked about organizing to make a change.

Dianne Mathiowetz is a leader of the Atlanta chapter of the International Action Center.

Labels: jena, jena 6, racism