Oh, you thought segregation and Racism was dead!!!!

Black High School Students in Louisiana Threatened With Lynching
By Rick Perlstein
TomPaine

Thursday 28 June 2007

I supposed this is part of our ongoing "yes, you read that headline correctly" series here at the Big Con. Read ongoing coverage here.

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree....

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles....

A while ago I invited my readers to send their favorite exposés of The Big Con from this blog to their conservative friends and relatives - a failed experiment. None of us are talking politics any more with our conservative friends and relatives. Please file this one away nonetheless. The "racism isn't a problem any more" trope is a perennial in America. Next time you hear it, send them the news from Jena, Louisiana.

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All-White Jury Likely to Hear Racial Fight Case in Louisiana
The Associated Press

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Jena, Louisiana: An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the "Jena Six" - a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

"I'm sure I can get a fair trial," Blane Williams, defense lawyer for 17-year-old Mychale Bell said. "You can't tell me there aren't six people in this town who won't listen fairly and do the right thing. I think people have a tendency to do the right thing."

The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges - attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder - were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

However, prosecutors on Monday reduced the charges for Bell, the first of the teens to go on trial, to aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years, and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery, which carries a maximum sentence of 7 1/2 years.

It is unclear when or whether prosecutors intend to change charges for the other defendants - four still facing attempted murder and conspiracy charges, and a juvenile whose name and charges have not been made public. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters has refused to publicly discuss the case.

Aggravated second-degree battery involves use of a dangerous weapon, according to state statutes.

But attorneys on both sides, during questioning of jurors, indicated prosecutors will try to say that something not usually thought of as a weapon - such as a ring or an ink pen - could be considered a dangerous weapon during a fight.

The racial tension began in late August in Jena - a central Louisiana town of 2,900 with about 350 black residents - after a black student sat under a tree traditionally used as a gathering spot by white students. The next month, three nooses were hanging in the tree when students arrived on campus.

"You didn't see the district attorney rush out to school to do anything about those nooses in the tree," said Caseptla Bailey, whose son, Robert Bailey Jr., also was charged in the beating. "You don't see white kids who beat up black kids charged with attempted murder. There's nothing fair going on here."

The school's principal recommended the students who hung the nooses be expelled, but they served brief suspensions instead.

On Dec. 4, Justin Barker, who is white, was attacked at school by a small group of black students. He was treated at a hospital.

Theodore Shaw also had been scheduled to go to trial this week, but his case was delayed. Trial dates for the others - Bryant Purvis, Bailey, Jones and the unidentified juvenile - have not been set.

Shaw and Bell have been held since their arrests, unable to post $90,000 (€66,865) bond.