Little La. Town Gears Up for Big Protest (Jena)

[Ghost in the Machine]

Little La. Town Gears Up for Big Protest
Published: 9/20/07, 12:45 AM EDT
By MARY FOSTER

JENA, La. (AP) - The streets around this tiny town's courthouse began filling with protesters Wednesday, a day ahead of a planned march in support of six black teenagers jailed in the December beating of a white classmate.

Thursday's march was expected to draw thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people, dwarfing Jena's population of about 3,500. Participants said they hoped to rekindle the spirit of the civil rights movement.

"This is the first time I've done anything like this, on this magnitude at least," said Nathaniel Ford, 47, a computer technician who traveled from Richmond, Va.

At the center of the protests is a group of black teenagers who have come to be called the Jena Six.

Months after declining to charge three white high school students who were briefly suspended for hanging nooses in a tree, local prosecutors charged five of the six with attempted second-degree murder in the beating of a white student. The sixth defendant's case is sealed because he is charged as a juvenile.

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[idgiehkt]

1. thanks for posting this

I will keep an eye on the news tomorrow.

[Ghost in the Machine]

3. Thanks, and try to keep us informed if you can..

I'll be in and out today and will try to keep up with it too...

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Funny how one topic takes over DU. few weeks ago it was Craig's bathroom tapping. b4 that - Vitter

[nealmhughes]

4. I saw on the cathode ray tube that the white businesses had closed down, for fear of "outside

agitators." That is a phrase I had never heard said aloud, but had read a lot in all my Civil Rights History classes' required reading!

"Outside agitators," by the way is code for "Strange Negroes." Another term we seldom hear these days: it means "strange, as in unknown, not odd."

This whole thing is vaguely surreal to me. I guess that the Jim Crow mentality does still live on in some places, but was hoping it was far, far away in a state that does not contain any place I visit.

Not very smart of the merchants, all told. Last time I checked, no one cared about any color save the color of the money for people who were about to have a captive spending audience.

[Heidi]

5. Some towns need agitation.

They say "agitator" like it's a bad thing.