From the Christian Science Monitor: Craig Franklin wrote a story published today that claims to dispel myths about Jena. He claims he can do this since, in his words:
I live in Jena. My wife has taught at Jena High School for many years. And most important, I am probably the only reporter who has covered these events from the very beginning.
To be fair, he makes one point that holds up:
Myth 3: Nooses Were a Hate Crime. Although many believe the three white students should have been prosecuted for a hate crime for hanging the nooses, the incident did not meet the legal criteria for a federal hate crime. It also did not meet the standard for Louisiana's hate-crime statute, and though widely condemned by all officials, there was no crime to charge the youths with.
But he doesn't tell the whole story ... more below the fold.
I've been waiting to repost this diary since many people suggested that I should. I was in Jena on the day of the march. I talked to teachers, students, and parents who give an account of what happened that differs from Franklin's report. Rep. Keith Ellison goes farther, arguing that the hanging of the nooses actually was a hate crime:
There is no doubt, however, that something happened in Jena. There is broad agreement that the criminal sentences facing the Jena 6 were unconstitutionally unfair. Some out of a crowd of 30,000 may have not had some of their facts straight, but does that diminish the event? Does that change the injustice? I don't believe so. And while I don't agree with everything I saw in Jena ... I do believe that the following pictures speak for themselves. I don't know if all of the Jena 6 should go free (though it seemed like "time served" may be appropriate in many cases). I don't believe in abiding violence. However, the CSM article oversimplifies too many things for my taste.
But I digress. Here are the photos I took while I marched in Jena. They tell an interesting story ... and I'll start with this one:
This is about one seventh of the crowd at the High School at about 11:00 AM CDT. This isn't counting the groups that were marching to the high school, marching from the high school, still on the buses, at the La Salle Parish Courthouse, at the BBQ on East Oak Street, or stuck somewhere else in town. I believe that the estimates of "over 10,000" or "about 20,000" are low. In so many ways, this was bigger than those numbers.
Our bus from Davidson, NC arrives at Jena Elementary
Our group consisted of mostly college students, and after 13 hours on the bus, we were ready to walk ... anywhere. For those who are really interested, here is a map of our walk.
Walking up and down the hills into town. Those police were brought in from a neighboring parish.
Our numbers grew as we passed an old Wal-Mart. Groups parked almost everywhere along US-84 as most of the businesses were closed.
Traffic lights were useless, and mostly flashed yellow. As a side note, the protest was completely peaceful from what we saw, but the Floor Store in the left side of this photo had a broken window when I passed it on the way out of town. Nothing indicated it was anything but an accident.
In the center of town.
It was a little over a kilometer from the Elementary to the center of town, and from there it was another kilometer to the high school. The media was out in full force, catching every step. Frankly, I was surprised that no POTUS candidates showed up.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a chopper. I counted at least 5 with different types of livery.
First responders were prepared as well, and the Red Cross was handing out water on the other side of the Courthouse
One of many groups we walked with on the way from the center of town to the High School. Photo taken on the east side of the Courthouse.
Turning the corner
Seriously, there were only 10,000-20,000 people? Look at the map, see how many people were on this small a portion of the route, and tell me there were that few ;-)
The protest wasn't really organized, as you may have heard. People visited Jena High School, and spoke at where the infamous tree used to be, and Revs. Jackson and Sharpton spoke at the courthouse, but there was no organized protest ... and yet, most people stayed on message, almost everyone wore black, the rally didn't stray much from the topic of Justice for the Jena 6, and participants steadfastly boycotted open businesses. While I had misgivings about the boycott, and while residents were very unhappy with the protesters, I was pleasantly surprised by the focus of those assembled (I didn't see any of the "Free Mumia" signs I got used to seeing at protests during the lead up to the Iraq Occupation). Below are two people who strayed a little bit:
The sticker reads "Impeach Bush for War Crimes."
Yes, I'm the idiot who forgot my black shirt ... and none of the ones they were selling on the street were 3XL.
Nothing prepared me for the scene once we got to the high school. There were all kinds of speakers, and all kinds of protesters. I found a marching band tower on the practice field to try and get shots.
Union workers from my birthplace (St. Louis, MO).
The crowd around the rally where the tree used to be
Fists of power replace nooses
The speakers at the high school were normal people stepping up to the occasion. Their point was that all important movements for social change started with young people. Amen to that; hopefully we changed young hearts in Jena by giving them a holiday from school, but perhaps that view is too jovial.
Quite a few people wanted to have their pictures taken with this sign
If you've been looking at the pictures closely, you've seen church buses, college students, and the NAACP. Here is another group.
The energy really picked up when we made it back to the courthouse. Jesse Jackson called Jena a "biopsy" of the countrywide cancer of racism. I think it's important to note that a lot of the speakers were calling the event "Jena" while avoiding condemning the entire town. Many protesters took a different tack, with the aforementioned boycott and chants of "No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police." Unfortunately, the distinction wasn't always clear to onlookers ... so I can only hope that the main message, that unequal justice is unacceptable, was taken to heart even if it was mixed with vinegar.
This and the following pictures show the scene at the La Salle Parish Courthouse.
Jesse Jackson addresses the crowd.
I left the town not knowing what to feel. Some groups asked for legal defense fund donations; it seemed as if they implied that they would boycott any business that didn't donate. Some people were against the town, and as I said above, I don't think I agreed with that method.
It's not like Montgomery, where they are putting an economic stranglehold on the agent of racism. I can see why businesses wouldn't give the fund money when it feels like blackmail. And the businesses didn't seem rich. It's like denying foreign aid to a country because they have a bad government - you're punishing people when you have no idea what their level of responsibility is. And in this case, there aren't any practical concerns, like warlords stealing aid.
Maybe not a perfect comparison. But I didn't see any evidence of the Subway owners doing anything wrong, and I think that there are better ways to change minds. I honored the boycott, but I didn't think it won us any friends.
I talked to as many people as I could in between speeches, chants, and shutterbugging. Some people were very eloquent veterans of the civil rights movement, and told themselves, over and over, "never again." Some wore their feelings on the outside:
That's what this comes down to; we either have equality in this country or we don't. I agree with Obama; we shouldn't have to have a national protest to stop this injustice. But Obama (and Clinton, Biden, Dodd, etc.) should have been there. More white Americans should have been there. I hate to be partisan about something as serious as this, but more Democrats should have been there (I proudly carried my North Carolina Democratic Party bag around all day). When we have Americans that feel like slaves yet again, then there is something wrong in America.
I don't condone violence, and perhaps freeing the Jena Six is too simple. But I believe in justice, and justice hasn't been done here. Even if the traditional media got some of the facts wrong ... I don't feel that we did.