Freedom Socialist • Vol. 28, No. 5 • October-November 2007

Black teenagers charged with murder in school yard fight

by Helen Gilbert

Support for the Jena Six at the Trout Creek Baptist Church, Jena, Aug. 5. Photo: Richard Alan Hannon / AP

The civil rights movement never made it to Jena. This small town of 3,000 in northern Louisiana has only 350 African Americans and is still largely segregated. It is part of oil-rich LaSalle Parish, which is 85 percent white. The parish gave former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke the highest percentage of votes in the state when he ran for governor in 1991.

So it took courage for a Black student to speak up at a September 2006 student assembly to ask the principal of Jena High School whether African Americans could sit in the shade of “the white tree,” traditionally the reserve of whites. Sit where you like, said the principal. A small group of Black students took him at his word and gathered under the tree. But the next morning, three nooses hung from a branch.

Though the principal proposed to expel the three white students responsible, the schools superintendent thought this too harsh for an adolescent “prank.” The offenders were suspended for three days and verbally chastised.

Angry Black students protested peacefully under the infamous tree. In response, the town’s district attorney, Reed Walters, rushed to the scene with a dozen police. At a school assembly, Walters told the Black youth to stop making a fuss. “I can make your lives disappear with a stroke of a pen,” he threatened.

Cruel and unusual punishment. Bigoted attacks escalated over the next few months. A Black teenager, Robert Bailey Jr., was hit over the head with a bottle at a student party: his attacker was charged with simple battery and put on probation. In another occurrence, a young white man threatened Bailey and friends with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun away — and were later charged with stealing it!

In December 2006, a fight broke out at the high school. A white student was beaten and treated for concussion. His injuries weren’t severe; he went to a party that night. But six young African American men, ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old, were arrested. Five were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit battery. The sixth was charged in juvenile court. All had helped lead the protest at the “white tree.”

One of the youths, Mychal Bell, has stood trial, represented by a hostile public defender who called no witnesses on his behalf. Bell was convicted by an all-white jury of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit battery. In the first positive signs in the case, the conspiracy conviction was later thrown out and a state appeals court recognized that Bell, 16 at the time of the fight, had been improperly charged as an adult.

However, it is likely Bell will be retried, and Robert Bailey and Bryant Purvis still face charges of attempted murder. Carwin Jones and Theo Shaw are to be tried for second-degree battery and conspiracy.

Parents of the students are building a national movement for justice. Robert Bailey’s mother, Caseptla, told an interviewer, “ You’re either going to fall and die, or come out fighting. They want to take these kids, lock them up, throw away the key. That’s a tradition for Black males. They want to keep that tradition going, because they want to keep institutionalized slavery alive and well.”

Rising resistance. On July 31, 300 supporters, most from the region but with national representation as well, marched through downtown Jena and delivered a petition to the district attorney with 43,000 signatures demanding dismissal of all charges. On Sept. 20, Jena will be the site of a national protest, and rallies will also be held in other cities.

Demonstrations already have taken place from the streets of Chicago to the halls of historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C. Leading hip-hop artists and the Congressional Black Caucus are demanding that charges be dropped.

ColorofChange.org presented Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco with 60,000 signatures calling for pardons and an investigation of District Attorney Walters. The Democratic governor replied with legalistic excuses. The group is now aiming to collect 200,000 signers.

Funds are desperately needed for legal expenses. Send checks to the Jena 6 Defense Fund, P.O. Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342, or donate via credit card at www.colorofchange.org and sign the petition. Stop the racist railroading of the Jena Six!