Its been a while since my last post and a lot has happened and changed since. More will come before the end of the weekend, however I must update you on the Jena 6.
I wrote about the Lousiana teens known as the Jena 6, back in July, because I was somewhat amazed and more disturbed that something so blantantly racist, as whites trying to intimidate blacks with nooses tied to a tree and the legal injustices that would follow, would occur in 2006/2007. Yes, racism is definitely alive and well, but most of my experiences with it, as with others that I know, have been mostly covert. However, I was talking with my father several days ago, and was surprised to discover that he had spoken out against an incident involving white men who had tried to intimidate blacks by tying a noose around a black man’s lunchbox on his job. This was in the late 90’s. According to The Institute for Southern Studies, NBC**, and other media sources cite that the town of Jena once gave over 60% of its vote to former KKK grand coward, David Duke, when he ran for governor. That ought to tell you something about that town.
None the less, supporters are on their way to Jena, as I type, for a rally to be held tomorrow, Thursday, September 20th, to call national attention to the boys’ plight. Thousands are expected to pour into small town Jena tomorrow and information about the rally, as well as efforts to gather people for bus trips to Jena, has been all over urban radio programs here in Los Angeles, and in other large cities as well. A schedule of events, which I located on www.hrcbackstory.org , is as follows:
7am – Convene at Ward 10 Recreation Park to receive information and instructions regarding the day’s events.
8am- March to the Jena Courthouse where judicial proceedings will begin. Prayer will occur after the march.
11am – Rally at the park after sentencing
7pm- Town hall meeting focusing on educational and criminal justice disparities in the U.S. will occur in Alexandria, Lousiana.
Also, I received an e-mail today urging all of those in support of the Jena 6 to show solidarity by wearing all black tomorrow. Well, being that I hadn’t checked my e-mail in a couple of days, I wore my favorite black shirt today. I have another but it’s kind of dressy….oh well, I’ll figure it out.
In my opinion, it has been the internet and the effort of bloggers who have really spread the word about this story. I have seen and heard very little about them on the nightly news and mainstream media, in general, has been slow to pick up this story. Hmmmmm……I wonder why? CNN has done a series of low profile stories on the boys on CNN.com, and I say low profile because the articles that exist about the Jena 6 are no where to be found on their main pages. I found information about the boys on the CNN website by performing a search. This search yielded other blogs and websites and 11 short CNN video clips.
The Jena 6 need your continued support. Visit www.freethejena6.org/, www.colorofchange.org, to learn more about ways that you can help. Also, for more articles and stories regarding the Jena 6, check out the following sites:
**Note** I wanted to post the YouTube NBC clip where the political history of Jena was discussed, but I refused due to the many hateful and racist comments left by some YouTube viewers.
Posted by School Teacher 
