The Jena March for Justice: My Experience and Perspective

It was a Beautiful Thing

It was a long night on the bus, 10 hours from Nashville to Jena with the stops. Not so comfortable seating didn't allow for much sleep.

We got off the state route in Louisiana and then had to make a 25 minute trek through other small towns, through the back woods, to get to Jean, population 3,000.

We arrived in front of the courthouse around 6:15 while it was still dark. By the time we moved into position to get out, the sun was coming up.

I went down wearing my black t-shirt with the famous picture of Huey P. Newtown and Bobby Seals standing in front of the Black Panther office's storefront window, that reads "Homeland Security, Protecting the Hood from Terrorism Since 1966". I thought it was fitting as we were going down to Jena to protest domestic terrorism.

I had to cram myself into the tiny bus bathroom to clean my upper body with some wet wipes, spray on some Right Guard, and change into my Support Jena 6 t-shirt that all of us from Nashville wore.

We got out to see a couple of thousand on the lawn of the courthouse, out into the street, and all around. The speakers hadn't started yet, but once they did, strong words would come from the podium from a Nation of Islam representative, Al Sharpton, MLK III, and a couple of others. The numbers would swell over the next couple of ours. Though I fought through the crowds, I could only get close enough to were I could just see the top of brother Al's and other speakers heads.

Others moved through the crowd giving their messages. A group from St. Louis lead by Afuma Muhammad drew great attention with there megaphone and powerful display. One brother was dressed in KKK white sheets and hood, with face showing, as he carried a dummy of a black man with a noose around his neck wearing a t-shirt that read in part, "U.S. History". Others carried nooses around necks of stuff dog dolls, as Muhammad proclaimed, "this is what America cares about. They care more about their dogs than Black people"; which coincidently coincides with a post I wrote at www.BlackPerspective.net ("Niggers Are Less Than Dogs In 2007")* two days before.