March on Jena Protests Justice System
A civil rights march tomorrow expected to draw tens of thousands to a tiny central Louisiana town isn’t just about perceived injustice concerning six black high school students.
It’s about the way African-Americans have been treated by the American justice system throughout the history of this country, writes Leonard Pitts in a Miami Herald column. “From the day slavery ended, that system has often been its surrogate, a tool used specifically for the suppression and control of black people.”
And the case of the Jena students originally charged with attempted murder after a school fight have reinforced that perception, according to Pitts.
After blacks attempted to occupy an outside area beneath a tree that had been a hangout for whites, nooses were hung there, evoking a history of vigilante hangings of African-Americans. Brief suspensions resulted. Then a white student who hit a black student in the head with a beer bottle was charged with simple assault and put on probation, his column recounts.
But when, after supposedly being taunted racially by a white student, the “Jena Six” allegedly responded by beating him up, they were charged with attempted murder. Meanwhile, the student, although he had been knocked out and had a black eye, felt well enough to go out the night of the attack, Pitts writes.
The charges were eventually reduced, and a Louisiana appeals court last week overturned the aggravated battery conviction of the one student whose case has been adjudicated. However, the prosecution plans to retry the case, and he remains in jail without bond, according to news reports.
While Jena is a good place to live, the justice system is a problem, resident Carol Brown, 35, an African-American who works as a home health aide, tells USA Today. Two years ago, her own daughter was convicted of disorderly conduct in a school fight case, she says, even though a teacher agreed that the girl wasn’t there.
Chicago Tribune (Bloggers inspire new civil rights wave).
Detroit Free Press (Racial tensions spark rally).
New York Times (In Louisiana, a Tree, a Fight and a Question of Justice).
Washington Post (Tiny Louisiana Town Gears Up for Protest March).
