Thursday is a Day of Action to Free The Jena 6. Pam's House Blend has been doing a fabulous job of covering the story. Mad Professah also alerted readers to NPR's coverage of the story several weeks ago. For example, Pam summarizes the story:Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."In Los Angeles, there are multiple ways one can get involved locally. In addition, here are some ways you can get involved:
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today.
...Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.
Sign the petition to support the
Jena 6 and be plugged in for future
action by visiting online:
www.colorofchange.org/jena. At
this site, you can also make a donation
to the legal defense fund, buy a “Free
the Jena 6” t-shirt, and join thousands
in demanding that the DA drop all
charges against the 6 young men.
Call Governor Blanco at 866-
366-1121, 225-342-0991, or 225-
342-7015. Tell her to intervene in the
Jena 6 case, and to act immediately to
investigate the DA.
Call the Louisiana State
Visitor Bureau at 225-342-8119.
Tell them you won’t be visiting Louisiana
until justice is served in the Jena
6 case.
