Just an update the the Jena 6 situation that I wrote about last month.
Thank you for the email and the comments on that blog.
If you haven’t signed the petition, please sign it here.
Today, David Bowie has donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for six black teens charged in an alleged attack on a white classmate in the tiny central Louisiana town of Jena.
“There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena,” Bowie said Tuesday in an e-mail statement. “A donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented.”
(I wrote about MY brief David Bowie encounter in ’02)
Bell was found guilty on second-degree battery charges June 28 by a six-member, all-white jury. Before the case was overturned by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, his sentencing had been set for Thursday.
The court said Bell, who was 16 at the time of the alleged December 2006 beating, shouldn’t have been tried as an adult.
As Danny Charles wrote in his comment:
‘When the Duke lacrosse case was going on, the media had something on the news on a daily basis, while the Jena Six case has been basically swept under the rug….”
Where is everyone else with the donations and support?
There will be a Jena 6 rally in Brooklyn tomorrow morning:
DEMAND JUSTICE
FOR THE
JENA 6!
“Justice for Jena”
Rally for Peace & Justice
THIS THURSDAY
September 20, 2007
9:30 am
Steps of BROOKLYN
BOROUGH HALL
209 Joralemon Street • Downtown Brooklyn
(2,3,4,5,A,C,F,M,R trains to Borough Hall)
No More Jim Crow Justice!
In Jena, Louisiana, white students hung nooses in a tree at the public high school, to warn black students not to sit under the “white tree.” The school dismissed this hate crime as a harmless prank. When black students protested, the local District Attorney threatened to take their life away with a “stroke of my pen.” After a schoolyard fight broke out between black and white students, the District Attorney responded by charging six black students with attempted murder. This does not just happen in Jena, Louisiana. Youth of color are treated this way all over America. Help us build a justice system that truly serves all our children.
The organizers of the rally, Assemblyman Karim Camara, Ms. Donna Nassor of Friends of Justice, and NYC Council Member Al Vann, will speak and have invited a number of other leaders to participate, including NYC Council Member Charles Barron; Rev. Herbert Daughtry of House of the Lord Church; Rev. Dr. Johnny Ray Youngblood of St. Paul Community Baptist Church; Hazel Dukes, President, NAACP New York State Conference; and activist/writer Kevin Powell.
There will be commentary, healing prayers, artists, and words of solidarity from various leaders and activists.
Info about various ways to support the Jena 6 will also be available.
To Learn More:
Friends of Justice website:
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/jena-6
Watch Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org
Questions? Contact:
For more general information, please contact
Lauren Baranco of Assemblyman Karim Camara’s office
at 718.756.1776 or barancl@assembly.state.ny.us.
All media inquiries are directed to
AKILA WORKSONGS Public Relations
at 718.756.8501 or at pr@akilaworksongs.com
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