Jena Six supplies outrage — and inspiration — to NU students
“There’s far too much acceptance for the status quo, acceptance that things cannot be changed,” said Greg Jue, a member of the Asian American Studies Program, as he showed slides of his September trip to the small town that has been dominating the news recently: Jena, Louisiana.
Jue and about twenty others gathered in Crowe Hall on Friday afternoon. Their two-hour discussion about race relations focused on the Jena Six, a group of black teenagers who have been charged with attempted murder for the beating of a white classmate.
On Sept. 20, an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 demonstrators protested what they saw as unjust and unequal treatment. People traveled from across the country to the small Louisiana town where the alleged crime took place, including Jue and a few others in attendance at the meeting.
“Things like the Jena Six are happening all the time, and there is a possibility of stopping it,” Jue said. “We should be trying to figure out how, but that would require a change in the overall mindsets of people.”
The attendees of Friday’s discussion organized a protest at the Rock on Monday, drawing dozens of additional students.
“I feel that we got a lot of people’s attention,” Medill sophomore Lauren Alexander said. “It was good to see a really diverse group stopping to listen to our message. The point of today was to get the word out and create a starting point for bigger action.”
Critics argue that the charges against the teens were disproportionately harsh and racially motivated. The six boys, all between 15 and 17 years old, were arrested and charged as adults with attempted murder and conspiracy, and faced up to a combined 100 years in jail.
In the months preceding the December attacks, racial tension swelled in Jena after a black student crossed racial bounds and sat under a tree that was considered “whites only” at the local high school. The day after, someone hung three nooses on the tree, an act considered a threat of violence in the region.
On Friday, while talking about what had happened, the group in Crowe covered everything from institutional racism to possible solutions to the issue. However, the shared concern seemed to be what the Jena Six means to Northwestern students and what can prevent issues like this from recurring.
“I feel like I know how important the Jena Six is because of my own personal experiences at this school,” Alexander said. “The racial communities on this campus are all so segregated. You can see this at parties and in who everyone hangs out with. We are self-segregating on this very campus, not just out there in other parts of the world.”
The issue has attracted the attention of national civil rights leaders, such as Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. It has also dominated the interests of national media outlets with black audiences, like the radio shows of Michael Baisden and Tom Joyner. But larger outlets ignored the events, some said.
“Issues like these have been denied mainstream media coverage until these marches and events were organized. I’m glad I could be a part of it,” said Drew Messinger-Michaels, a junior at Columbia College who was present at the rally in Jena. “People need to get mad about all of these injustices.”
Jue said that instead of just thinking about themselves and their careers, students should mobilize to create significant change in the world outside of campus. The group is now looking to organize discussions, and perhaps bring in speakers on the topic in the near future, Alexander said.
“The fact is this is such a great focal point to organize a movement around, and hopefully this is just a sample of what is to come, with people taking control and seeking action,” said Lauren Villegas, a junior in Weinberg. “I always complain about how apathetic our generation is. So when I see someone taking action, I join them. You have to. Because if you don’t, who is going to?”
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Check out more campus activism, like the rally for Darfur and profiles of the Campus Greens and Campus Feminists. Or you can return home.
It may be good for NBN to run a photo that doesn’t have their reporter front and center in the middle of it…
Stats Guy
October 2, 2007 at 2:14 am
Hi stats guy,
You’re correct, and it wasn’t our intention to do so. The photo was selected by a staffer unfamiliar with the reporter. It has since been replaced, and we regret the error.
Thanks for the comment,
Tom Giratikanon
Tom Giratikanon
October 2, 2007 at 10:01 am
Obviously the threat of violence is a terrible thing and should be punished. The students who hung those nooses on the tree should be ashamed of themselves.
However, the fact of the matter remains that the Jena 6 ganged up on a student and beat him to a pulp. I’m not sure why students should “support” this group and their violent action. They certainly weren’t following MLK’s ideals of non-violence protests to injustice.
Skeptical
October 2, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Jena High School students, teachers and administrators say that students of both races congregated beneath the tree and that the tree was never officially or unofficially reserved for white students. According to the Jena Times, the black student who requested permission at an assembly posed the question in jest. The paragraph below is taken from the Jena Times chronology of events:
“August 30, 2006: During a Wednesday assembly of all males at Jena High School, many items were discussed concerning rules and policies of the school for the new school year. Such items included dress codes, etc. Near the end of the assembly, one black student jokingly asked Assistant Principal Gawen Brugess if black students were permitted to sit underneath the tree in the center of the square located in the center of the campus. The question evoked laughter from everyone at the meeting, including the black students, with Burgess responding, “Don’t even go there. You know you can sit anywhere you want.” Burgess and the rest of the students knew the remark was made to gain laughter as a joke, not as a serous question. A couple more jokes were also made (not about the tree) before the lighthearted assembly was dismissed.”
Jena High School administrators, teachers and students also say there was never a protest beneath the tree following the noose-hanging incident.
Following the beating incident, the Justice Department reopened its investigation into the noose-hanging incident and determined there was no link between the nooses and the attack on Justin Barker at Jena High School. U.S. Attorney Donald Washington told CNN that, “A lot of things happened between the noose hanging and the fight occurring, and we have arrived at the conclusion that the fight itself had no connection.” He added that none of the black students involved in the beating made “any mention of nooses, of trees, of the ‘N’ word or any other word of racial hate.” According to CNN, federal official also examined the way the school handled the infractions and whether black students were being treated differently than white students. Washington told CNN that they discovered “it was not unusual for the school superintendent to reinstate students after the principal recommends expelling them.” Washington also told CNN that the 16-year-old defendant, Mychal Bell, has “several previous assault charges on his record.”
The CNN story (”U.S. Attorney: Nooses, Beating at Jen High Not Related”) is online at http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/19/jena.six.link/index.html
Blair
October 4, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Good research Blair
Skeptical
October 4, 2007 at 7:58 pm