Vol. 71/No. 36      October 1, 2007

A small victory was registered today in the fight for justice for these men, called the Jena Six, when a state appeals court threw out the felony conviction against Bell. The judge ruled that Bell, who was 16 at the time of his arrest, should not have been tried as an adult.

District Attorney Reed Walters said he would appeal the decision to the state supreme court. Bell could still be charged in juvenile court. Four of the remaining defendants were 17 at the time of the arrest and are not affected by the judge’s ruling.

“It’s great that the court struck down the first conviction,” Sterling Kokroko, 26, a student from Texas Southern University, told the Militant. “But this is about racism right across this country. We are demanding freedom for all the Jena Six. Drop all the charges. It is crucial that we be there next week.”

The Jena Six students were arrested following a December 4, 2006, fight with a white student. The fight followed months of racist harassment and attacks against Black students.

A year ago, African American students in Jena, a central Louisiana city of 3,000, began campaigning to challenge racist practices at their school. At an Aug. 31, 2006, school assembly a Black student asked if Black students had a right to sit under a schoolyard tree where only white students sat. Following the assembly, he sat under it. The next day three nooses were hanging from the tree. White students who hung them received suspensions of three days.

Five days after the incident, Black students organized a sit-in under the tree to protest the light suspensions.

The day of the sit-in, the district attorney addressed an emergency school assembly. He told the protesting African American students they should stop making a fuss about the “innocent prank.” He threatened that if they did not, “I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”

Harassment increased in the following months. On December 1, a Black student was beat up by whites at a party. The next day a young white man pulled a loaded shotgun on a Black student, who disarmed him. No charges were filed against the white man, but the Black youth was later arrested.

On December 4 another fight occurred. Justin Baker, a white student, was injured, treated at a local hospital, and attended a school social later that day. Six African American students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Their bail was set from $70,000 to $138,000. They were all expelled from school.

Bell went to trial first. His public defender called no defense witnesses and an all-white jury rapidly convicted Bell of aggravated assault. The charge carries a possible 15-year sentence.

Relatives of the students formed the Jena 6 Defense Committee, appealing for support around the country. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the NAACP, National Lawyers Guild, Millions More Movement, other civil rights organizations, and dozens of student organizations across the country have spoken in defense of the Jena Six.

On July 31 people from other Louisiana cities, as well as from Texas and other states, came to a rally in Jena. Last month Jena high school students wearing “Free the Jena 6” t-shirts were told over the school public address system that the shirts were banned from school.

“Some people say they are surprised about what happened there. I’m not,” Zadia Murphy, a member of the campus NAACP chapter and the Council of Ethnic Organizations at the University of Houston, told the Militant. “They have exposed the racism that exists today, and not just in Jena.”

Amanda Ulman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Houston mayor, contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Justice for the Jena 6! Drop the charges now!  
 
 
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