While 15,000 to 20,000 people marched through Jena, Louisiana yesterday to protest the race-based justice meted out by District Attorney Reed Walters, all eyes were on the little town with the big racial divide. In a march where the only two arrests were white kids with nooses, hopes were high that shining a light on the racial segregation of Jena would start the process of ensuring racial equality in Jena's judicial system.
Those hopes were further raised when an appellate court issued a surprise ruling, ordering a bond hearing for Bell, who is still sitting in jail despite his criminal conviction being over-turned. But as of 30 minutes ago, it is clear that there is far more work to be done in Jena.
Mychal Bell's request for bail was just denied.
For some who want to believe that even racially-biased justice is still justice, this would be good news. After all, anyone who only looks at the Jena Six sees a story of six black students beating up a white student. And for too many, that's as much as they care to know.
But unlike the story told in the railroaded investigation by the DA and sheriff's dept and the follow-up whitewashing by the Department of Justice Civil Rights division, there's far more to this incident than just one high school fight. And anyone that digs further would acknowledge that there is reasonable doubt as to the identity of those involved as well as what occured in the incident in themselves. Certainly those who bothered to look past the DA's talking points would be disturbed by the sham of a trial. And the fact that so many people want to move past this incident while one young man is still fighting for justice makes it all the more important that we keep this issue in the headlines.
The march may be over, but the fight goes on. So please help me support those who are behind the efforts to bring justice to Jena:
Dr Alan Bean and the Friends of Justice have been involved in this case since the beginning and have done amazing work to help organize the efforts to bring justice to Jena, as they had done in the Tulia drug charges controversy. They are a small organization that depends on our help in order to continue their work, please click the link to go their page and follow the paypal links to support their heroic efforts.
If you are interested in supporting the efforts of the Jena Six's legal team to ensure fair trial. As we saw with Mychal Bell's trial, justice can be hard to come by for poor, disenfranchised African-Americans. But when effective counsel can make all the difference. Please give to the Jena Six defense fund and sign the petition.
fabooj has a great link to a banner for anyone who wants to link to the Color of Change petition from their blog.
Also, per C Dub ois's comment, there has been a Jena 6 scholarship fund established, yet another great way of supporting the Jena 6 by helping ensure these boys get the education they need to beat the racial injustices that puts so many socio-economically disadvantaged minorities at the mercy of the judicial system.
Let's not just move on, Kossacks. There is still too much work to do for justice for the Jena Six.
Update: Sam Spencer for County Commissioner has a wonderful diary of pictures and observations from the protest. It's really a must read.