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.

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Some comments about your article: 1. If you'll recall the main wing of the school was burned down, so there WAS construction going on when you were there. The tree was torn down because it was sitting where part of the new main wing will be built. 2. And no, Jena is not ignoring the racism issue. If you paid closer attention, you'd know that there have been TONS of church revivals since the Jena 6 incident where black and white churches got together (which was very rare before the Jena 6 incident) held hands and worshipped together. This small town has come a long ways, but no one wants to talk about positive things, do they? Sounds like some people want to exploit what has happened in the past as long as they possibly can instead of rewarding what is happening in the present.

Posted on 08/30/2008 at 12:08:11 PM

Alyce Rocco, like I said, that video doesn't even do it justice, not even close. It was such an invigorating thing live, that I still think about it often, and can fill it in my body. Easily one of my favorite parts of the whold day. I need to findout who those brothers were.

Posted on 10/14/2007 at 12:10:00 AM

I really enjoyed the video of the New Orleans street style band.

Posted on 10/08/2007 at 9:10:00 PM

Bell surprising the lawyer by saying "Not Guilty" was on CNN, I believe. That or Associated Press.

Posted on 10/06/2007 at 1:10:00 AM

Mr. Boswell, or maybe we should call you Dr. Boswell, wish I had seen the writeup sooner but better late than never. I learned much from it and respect what you did and what you have written. There is an AC named "compuwise" who is writing some really horrible stuff; one attacks the Red Cross for providing beverages and the other, well, the other is much much worse. I don't know if you want to bother addressing this person or just ignore. Thank you again for the writeup.

Posted on 10/05/2007 at 6:10:00 PM

I knew Bell's lawyer put up no defense and urged him to take a deal; I did not specifically here about Bell surprising the lawyer with a "not guilty" plea. I'm proud and respect all of them for not taking a deal. That to me speaks to their innocence and integrity. Some of the accused might have whooped some ass (some weren't even involved), but they know they're being railroaded beyond what they did, and they're fighting for their lives.

Posted on 10/04/2007 at 12:10:00 PM

As for the Black guy who wore the noose, okay, now I understand why the White people in Jena, LA were in such an uproar about a Klan robe. I didn't see this guy either. I don't really think that was a productive way to prove a point although I see that he was trying to make a point.

Posted on 10/03/2007 at 6:10:00 AM

As for the schoolyard, I'm not surprised it looked like a dump. The houses with Keep Out signs look like they had carbon monoxide and lead poisoning mixed with a side of roaches and termites. All I kept thinking was "I wouldn't come to your house if you invited me with red carpet on the lawn." As for Dee Dee Hunter's issue with voting, see, this is what I don't understand. Regardless of the population, if the town knew that they could not get an unbiased group of people (specifically nonrelatives of Justin Barker), that case should've been moved. Walters may be a conniving, manipulative, and racist lawyer, but he was smart enough to make sure he got witnesses and jurors that would help his case. Amazing how Bell shocked his OWN lawyer by saying "Not guilty" when the lawyer never planned to take the case to trial. I have so much respect for Bell for doing that.

Posted on 10/02/2007 at 9:10:00 AM

I really enjoyed this article because you saw so many things that I missed out. I had no idea where the school was, so I didn't bother trying to go to it. I had no clue about the true stump being uprooted. They are absolutely trying to make this case go away. No wonder I got stopped so many times from people to take photos of my sign (it had a picture of the tree on it). I only saw two Panther members there. Do you know what was tattooed under one of their eyes? I saw tears on one guy, but the other one had what looked like prison numbers under his eye.

Posted on 10/02/2007 at 8:10:00 AM

The vast majority of mainstream media leaves out key points that make all the difference in the issue. When CNN did their first television report, I had to write Susan Rosegen highlighting all the pertinent facts that she left out. True that about mob justice and insanity.

Posted on 09/28/2007 at 8:09:00 AM

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