Over the last 13 months, a heated, racially-charged legal case in Jena, La., a town of just 4,000 people, has captured national attention. From an all-white jury to nooses to a blatantly racist district attorney, the case of the so-called Jena Six has created intense unrest in certain circles, but you may not have heard of it.
In August of last year, a courageous young black man sat under a shade tree that has historically been reserved for white students in the courtyard of a public high school. The following morning, three nooses hung swaying from the tree.
For many in the black community, the message was clear. “It meant the KKK, it meant ‘niggers we’re going to kill you, we’re gonna hang you ‘til you die,’” said Caseptla Bailey, mother of a black student, to the BBC. Members of the white community saw it as nothing more than a prank.
The black students staged an impromptu sit-in under the tree, and instead of addressing the protesting students’ concerns, the school called in armed police and District Attorney Reed Walters. An emergency assembly was called, and according to substitute teacher Michelle Rogers, D.A. Walters threatened the civilly disobedient kids: “See this pen in my hand? I can end your lives with the stroke of a pen.”
The school principal demanded the students be expelled, but the school board overruled him, and the white students received but a slap on the wrist.
In the slew of racially motivated violence that followed, a white student broke a beer bottle over a black student’s head for attending an all white party. In addition, another white student pulled a shotgun on four black teens at a gas station. When the black teens wrestled the gun away and reported the incident to the police, they were subsequently arrested for theft of the gun.
No charges have been brought against any of the white students involved.
Then last December, six black students with promising college futures allegedly jumped an outspokenly bigoted classmate. They were summarily expelled from school and arrested for second-degree attempted homicide and conspiracy. The white student was treated for a mild concussion and bruises and was released after three hours. He attended a school event that evening.
Bail ranged from $70,000 to $138,000 for each of the accused youths, amounts so exorbitant that some are still behind bars while they await trial. If convicted, members of the so-called Jena Six face up to 100 years in prison.
The case has infuriated many in the Cornell community. Prof. Alan Gomez, city and regional planning, spoke on the case of the Jena Six: “It’s like we’re back in 1857, it’s the Dred Scott case. I’m a historian, and for me it’s clear, the black body today is the same body of the 1800s, a body without rights.”
To Asa Craig ’11, the case comes as no surprise: “We like to think that everything is perfect between whites and blacks, but there are cases all the time where it becomes very obvious that this is not true. In Louisiana they’re still trying to deny that nooses have racial significance. It’s just dumbfounding.”
Stephanie Rodriguez ’09, a member of the on-campus Prison Activist Coalition, sees this as an opportunity to initiate real dialogue and change. “This type of injustice happens all the time. It’s good that this case has made national headlines, but the real issue is that it is time for us — blacks, Latinos, women and other racially and sexually oppressed groups — to exercise our civil duties more than ever in order to end Jim-Crow injustice. What about that woman in West Virginia?! No one is even talking about that,” she said, referring to a 20 year-old woman who was held against her will, tortured and sexually assaulted in September.
Amanda Colon ’08 reacted to the case: “We must continue to build off of the energy surrounding the Jena Six and feel empowered to stand up and speak out against the continual injustices faced by people of color everyday.”
So how far have we really come since the Civil Rights Movement? Intellectual/activist Angela Davis, who spoke at Sage Chapel last evening, reiterated that this case illustrates the arduous struggle that lies ahead. “Racism is very much still a part of American culture and the criminal justice system. It’s outrageous that the D.A. thought it was OK to publicly make a statement like that,” she told me, referring to his threatening words for the protesting students.
Beneath the rhetoric of equality, it appears that we are regressing as a nation. Just this past January the Supreme Court ruled that integrationist measures employed since Brown v. Board were unconstitutional. In a nation where 70 percent of people in prison are people of color but where the majority of people who commit crimes are white, should not we employ more integrationist policies? Should we not advocate for the eradication of poverty and ghettos, instead creating them with ever more advanced gentrification schemes? Should we not begin to serve the dreams of those most underserved by society instead of locking them up? If we wish to avoid future cases of the Jena Six, we must begin to take these questions seriously.
That is why tomorrow at noon, the ladies of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and the brothers of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity are hosting a rally on Ho Plaza to publicize the plight of the Jena Six.
Evan Baker Smith is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at ebs34@cornell.edu.