Local voices raised to defend the “Jena Six” in Louisiana

A racially charged case against six black high school students from a small town in Louisiana struck a nerve 900 miles away in Chicago. Last weekend, about 50 people gathered downtown for a march and rally on behalf of the young men known as the “Jena Six.”

In September 2006, several black students sat under a shade tree popular with white students at a Louisiana high school. The next day several nooses hung from the tree and, from there, a series of conflicts erupted in the 3,000-person town of Jena.

After allegedly beating up a white student who reportedly taunted them, six black students were arrested in December and charged with attempted murder. The white student suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from a hospital the same day.

Several black students are still in jail, unable to make bond. All six face possible sentences of 15 to 100 years. Civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson Sr. and Al Sharpton, have come to the defense of the young men, and the NAACP says the teens are facing “overly aggressive prosecution and extended incarceration.”

“We are trying to take a stand for these kids,” said Tanisha Wilkerson, who first heard about the case on Democracy Now and helped organize the Chicago rally. “Why the hell are they being charged for attempted murder?”

Wilkerson used her MySpace account to get word out about the local rally for the “Jena Six.” Students from several Illinois colleges who  attended the rally said they heard about it through MySpace or Facebook and felt compelled to get involved.

Nora Clark, a sophomore at Columbia College Chicago, called the situation in Jena “messed up” and said it is clearly part of a larger problem of racism.

The high school’s administration should be addressed for their poor handling of the situation, she said, and the community needs to get the message that this is not the way to solve problems.

“It’s definitely a bigger issue than this one case,” Clark said.

Besides college students, several high school students attended the rally with their parents, who said it was an issue that concerned both generations.

Genine Ben of Chicago said she heard about the “Jena Six” from Wilkerson’s (MySpace) site and told her four sons to read about it. Her youngest son, 16, attended the rally with one of his friends.

“This is the reality they have to face,” Ben said. “This type of injustice is still going on in 2007.”

Linda Beckstrom went to the rally with her 15-year-old son, who heard about the case on his own. It is blatant racism, she said, and she and her son wanted to do something about it.

“Face-to-face interactions raise awareness, and people can change their minds,” she said. “I would hope for people to stop and say, ‘What is this about?'”

Holding signs that said “Justice for Jena,” “Free the Jena 6” and “Racism Does Exist,” the group marched from NBC Plaza on Michigan Avenue to the Daley Plaza in the Loop, where others joined them for some short speeches and announcements.

The YWCA of Lake County secured a permit for the rally, and people traveled from as far away as Ohio to attend. Several organizers plan to be in Louisiana Sept. 20 when the first student is sentenced.

That student, Mychal Bell, has already been convicted, according to media accounts, by an all-white jury without any witnesses being called on his behalf, of second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit second-degree battery. He faces up to 22 years in prison.

“If you don’t believe there is a double standard after Katrina and this event, you need to open your eyes,” Beckstrom said. “Injustice happens every day.”

School fights should receive three days suspension, Wilkerson said, according to Jena High School rules. The black students should not have jumped the white kid, she said.

“Fight is not right,” Wilkerson said. “But these kids should not be locked up.”

Calling the felony charges against the students “a great injustice,” the group also wanted to draw attention to what they called the underlying racism that affects the criminal justice system as a whole, in Louisiana as well as Illinois.

“This kind of incident is not just happening in the South or in Louisiana,” said Robert Aspholm, a senior studying social work at Loyola University. “Anyone here knows some cases of injustice.”

Minorities in Illinois make up about one-third of the juvenile population but account for two-thirds of the population in juvenile prisons, Wilkerson said. Latinos are twice as likely as whites to go to prison and African Americans are ten times more likely, she said.

African Americans in Illinois are just as likely to serve a prison sentence as they are to go to college, according to the Chicago Metropolis 2020 2006 Crime and Justice Index.

On Sept. 4, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, some charges against three of the students were reduced, but the now 17-year-old Bell still faces up to 15 years in prison. Local organizers saw this as a hopeful sign and said their involvement has already had an impact.

“You can’t mandate people’s hearts, but you can mandate behavior,” Beckstrom said. “The district attorney needs to be exposed, and I think that’s going to happen. Justice will prevail.