Jena Six Update 9/14/2007

[XXPANTHAXX]

Ashe! Afroninpo Media Assassin Jena 6 Rally: A Photo Journal

[JemChi]

Greetings Fam, I read this article in one of Detroit's local papers. It's an interesting article..

Here a Jena, there a Jena, everywhere a Jena Jena
BLACKONOMICS

By James Clingman
NNPA Columnist

Black people are under full attack in this country. The Jena Six case is just another in a long line of travesties heaped upon Black people by our so-called criminal justice system. All over this country there are cases of gross injustice against Black people, so much so that we could conduct a march every week if we chose to deal with them all. Maybe that’s the point: I wonder how many of those who went to Jena, Louisiana, have similar situations in their own cities. I also wonder if they have marched and protested in their own backyards about that injustice.

Let’s put it right out there, brothers and sisters. Black folks are a mere afterthought in this country. The following is an excerpt from my book, Black Empowerment with an Attitude — You Got A Problem With That? .

“After our ‘official’ arrival in this land, in 1619, up until now, we have been overlooked, mistreated, denied access, used and abused, enslaved, auctioned off, whipped, branded, raped, lynched or otherwise murdered, unjustly incarcerated, corralled in urban centers and then destroyed by urban renewal, shot 27 times, 41 times, and 50 times by police officers, hosed down, bitten by dogs, beat down for trying to walk across a bridge, cheated by banks and insurance companies, used in wars, used as guinea pigs for medical experiments, denied the right to vote even after the 15th Amendment, excluded from economic development projects, paid less than white folks for doing the same jobs, denied employment and promotions, discriminated against at every turn, gerrymandered, firebombed, maced, tasered, choked, prodded in the rectum with a broomstick in the hands of police officers, abandoned to drown in the polluted and alligator infested water left in Katrina’s wake, and then, to add insult to injury, or just to really let us know how much of an afterthought we truly are, nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina, Black people in New Orleans are still homeless, still jobless, and still suffering.�

A Black teenaged boy in L.A. was beaten by a cop; the officer sued and received over a million dollars. In Palmdale, California, a young sister, 16-years of age, was manhandled by a school security guard after she accidentally dropped some birthday cake on the floor; the brute threw her across a table and broke the girl’s arm. Another young sister was kidnapped, raped, and tortured by a group of degenerates in West Virginia; the Feds said it was not a “hate crime.�

William Mayo still sits in a Georgia prison after 15 years; it sure would be great to see 50,000 folks marching on his behalf and sending in money for his defense. Genarlow Wilson is still in jail too. A minister, Lennox Yearwood, was gang tackled by police outside a U.S. Congressional hearing room as he stood in line to get into a hearing on the Iraq war; they broke his leg. Shaquanda Cotton, 14, was thrown in prison for seven years for shoving a hall monitor.

...We are at war with those who are supposed to protect and serve us, and we are at war with those among us who have succumbed to the death-grip of crime, thuggery, gangsterism, self-hate, and fratricide. We have Jena’s all over this country. Let the collective work and responsibility begin. Stand up against injustice and crime wherever they exist.

And let your dollars do the talking and the walking when it comes to dealing police brutality and discriminatory courts.

[JemChi]

January 21st: Oppose the Lynch Mob Racists!

No to Nooses! Free the Jena Six! We Want a Better World!

White Supremacists plan to march in Jena on Martin Luther King Day in 2008. On Martin Luther King Day of all days, the one day that is supposed to be about the struggle of Black people, they are coming to march with Nooses! This is a call to people everywhere: On Monday January 21st, get to Jena! OPPOSE THE LYNCH MOB RACISTS!
Displaying nooses is a hateful and terrorizing message. These racists want to take us back to the days of lynch mobs murdering Black people in this country. Nooses are INTOLERABLE. Bring a sign, hang a poster, make a banner, get to Jena, SAY NO TO NOOSES!


The Jena High students said no to nooses hung at their school when they protested by standing underneath the "white only tree." Then on September 20th, 2007 tens of thousands of people stood up, marching in Jena and around the country. People said "Enough is Enough" to the injustice in punishing Black youth who take a stand against racism. The white supremacists call Black youth criminals and thugs, they say, "Jail the Jena Six." Let's say it loud again in Jena: FREE THE JENA SIX!
It is in response to September 20th and what that day achieved that white supremacists are lashing out, with a message that takes us back to the horrors of lynch mobs and segregation. When racism rears its ugly head, it is up to people everywhere, white and Black, people of all nationalities, to take a stand. If you are against injustice and inequality, if you want racism to end...it's up to you to voice it! If we don't speak up and stand up, this horrific message will go unopposed. If not us who? If not now when?
Protest in Jena on January 21st. Join people everywhere in politically opposing white supremacy and drowning out their message of hate with the message that WE WANT A BETTER WORLD.


January 21st Committee
Contact the committee. Email: january21injenacomm@yahoo.com Phone: 318-787-1190
Spread the word! Get out this call far and wide, support and build for January 21st

Bus tickets cost 200.00 each, please donate generously to allow many others to go to Jena
Call Quetzal at 646 915 2323 or Rage at 917 864 4318 to buy a ticket for yourself or others.

!Initial signatories:
A group of 14 Jena residents Black and white, young and old, including two parents of the Jena Six
Addis Bey Ababa, People's Hurricane Relief Fund organizer, Atlanta
Animas SDS (the Fort Lewis College [Durango CO] autonomous chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
Medea Benjamin, Cofounder CODEPINK* and Global Exchange*
Black Men 7, Eunice, Louisiana
Herb Boyd, The Black World Today, NY, NY
Reverend Raymond Brown, Community Activist, New Orleans
Marcus Coleman, President-National Action Network, Atlanta chapter* and 37 members and supporters attending the 1st NAN Atlanta meeting of 2008
C3 (Community, Concern, Compassion)/Hands Off Iberville, New Orleans
60 residents of Cabrini Green, Chicago
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party
Education Not Incarceration (San Francisco Chapter)
Miky Espinal, NY organizer for Health & Hospital Workers Union 1199*
Peggy Hendrix, member of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Idress Stelley Foundation
International Socialist Organization, Madison Campus Branch
Thomas Kleven, Professor of Law, Thurgood Marshall School of Law*
Mayday New Orleans
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action, Los Angeles
NU Coalition to Free the Jena 6, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Don Paul, writer, musician, Housing is a Human Right, New Orleans
People Against Racist Terror
Don Rojas, The Black World Today, NY, NY
San Francisco Bayview Free The Jena Six Task Force
San Francisco Village Voice Community Radio, 105.5 FM
San Francisco Bayview Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Sankofa Community Empowerment
Sess 4-5, Nuthin But Fire Records, New Orleans
Adam Shapiro, "Current Events" on WRFG 89.3 FM Atlanta
Cindy Sheehan, Candidate for Congress, California's 8th district, mother of KIA soldier Casey Sheehan
Benetta Standly, Georgia Statewide Organizer, ACLU*
Student Organizers from University of California, PA and Howard University
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime
Everett Taasevigen
"Mzee" Leonard Tate, Millions More Movement Atlanta Chapter
Ms. Beauty Turner, National award-winning Journalist/Activist/Groundbreaking researcher, Founder of Poor People Millennium Movement
McNair Wagner, member Georgia Students for Sustainability
Cornel West
William Winters, Baton Rouge Activist
Alice Woodward and Hank Brown, Jena, LA correspondents for Revolution
*For identification purposes only
Join us! This call is still in progress and we invite organizations, student groups, Jena residents and others to endorse.