Jena 6: It's time for action!

On September 20, there will be a Day of Action in support of the Jena 6. From Color of Change:

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today.

...Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.

On Penn's campus, Efe Stella Johnson the chairwoman of the United Minorities Council (UMC), recently sent out an action alert to UMC members. I hope this is just the beginning of further campus activism. The UMC also launched a blog this semester which you should check out.

It is also great to see that there is a broad coalition of national civil rights organizations including the NAACP and ACLU, supporting this effort. Last week, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced that it will be a part of the civil rights community seeking justice in the case of six black teenagers who have fallen victim to severe racial bias at the hands of judicial authorities in Jena, Louisiana.

Over at Openleft.com, Matt Stoller shows the stunning contrast between independent coverage and how the traditional media is distorting the story. And, that's not even mentioning the complete lack of national news coverage since the incident happened last year! Watch both of these reports, one from Brian Williams and one from an independent outfit, and note the difference in narration and the use of facts. It's really, well, stunning.

You can join the Facebook event here. Be sure to wear black on Thursday September 20th and take a stand against racism!

~BT