The Jena Six
Jena, LA (pop. 2,971)
If you've been following the news, you've probably heard about the Jena Six story [wiki]. In case you haven't, here's a recap.
In September 2006 in the small Louisiana town of Jena, three nooses -- symbolizing the letters KKK of the Ku Klux Klan -- were hung from a tree in the yard of Jena High School. They were hung in response to African American students sitting under the tree even though it was known as the "white tree", a place where only Caucasian students sat. The students who hung the nooses were eventually caught and were suspended from school for three days. During the following months several racially motivated fights broke out at the school.
The Jena Six.
This all culminated in the December 2006 schoolyard beating of a white student, one Justin Barker, by six black students -- aka the Jena Six. Five of the six were charged with attempted murder and are being tried as a adults. However, the beating was relatively minor (slight concussion, swollen eye, facial abrasions) and the beaten student was able to walk himself to the hospital and was discharged after only two hours. So far one trial, that of Mychal Bell, has run to completion resulting in a guilty verdict and a possible sentence of up 22 years in prison. However, the jury of his peers was, in fact, all white.
Justin Barker immediately after the assault.
That brings us up to the present with Jena being identified on a national level as a prime example of how racism is alive and well in the South. Protesters have been flocking to the small town by the busload and the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have made appearances and speeches and they're all calling for the Jena Six to be set free.
Poll
What the media hasn't been telling us:
- The so-called "white tree" at Jena High, often reported to be the domain of only white students, was nothing of the sort, according to teachers and school administrators; students of all races, they say, congregated under it at one time or another.
- Two nooses - not three - were found dangling from the tree. Beyond being offensive to blacks, the nooses were cut down because black and white students "were playing with them, pulling on them, jump-swinging from them, and putting their heads through them," according to a black teacher who witnessed the scene.
- There was no connection between the September noose incident and December attack, according to Donald Washington, an attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in western Louisiana, who investigated claims that these events might be race-related hate crimes.
- The three youths accused of hanging the nooses were not suspended for just three days - they were isolated at an alternative school for about a month, and then given an in-school suspension for two weeks.
- The six-member jury that convicted Bell was, indeed, all white. However, only one in 10 people in LaSalle Parish is African American, and though black residents were selected randomly by computer and summoned for jury selection, none showed up.
I'm willing to bet that most of you want to change your vote now.
However, to be fair, I did find the above items circulating in the Associated Press (see here), so the media is beginning to get a handle on the case. On the other hand, at this hour you can still view hundreds of articles at major new outlets like CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc. that are still telling this story based on the old "facts" as if it were gospel. And I think that might be the biggest tragedy of all.