"I just feel like every time the white people did something [at the school in
Jena]," Ms. Jones said, "they dropped it, and every time the black people did something, they blew it out of proportion." – April Jones, 17,
Atlanta, Georgia.
Not startled, not surprised, unfortunately an everyday occurrence; the
Jena incident being just one of many events of racial discrimination that occur in this country on a large scale and on a small scale.
Dismayed, saddened, and frustrated; problems in society, like racism, are usurped for stories about Charlie Sheen or the Royal Wedding.
Absolutely horrified; our country continues to slash spending on education every year.
Education is the only solution to creating a civil society.
Education gives us the freedom to understand, to learn, to reason and create.
Education provides solutions, it inspires people to appreciate our racial differences and learn to accept the ideas of all citizens with respect and compassion.
It’s the power of education that generates justice and peace.
Regarding the two news stories, there were several similarities between the events in
Jena,
Louisiana, in September of 2007 and those in
Little Rock, Arkansas in September, 1957.
Both incidents involved students enrolled in public schools.
Those highlighted in
Jena were called the Jena Six, and those in
Little Rock were called the Little Rock Nine.
Both groups of students were black.
The L.R. Nine were denied access into school by state National Guard troops because of opposition to the integration of black students into all white schools.
The famous
Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court on May 17, 1954 had overturned segregated schools.
The J. Six were arrested because of an incident at school that involved a beating, to unconsciousness, of a white student.
The town of
Jena, Louisiana is 85% white, and the judicial system was quick to charge the black students with attempted murder.
It was the actual
governor of
Arkansas, Orval Faubus, who sent the armed troops to deny the L.R. Nine access to an all white school, in a predominantly white town.
In both cases, there was a tremendous overreaction, by the white population and the judicial system, to an issue that rested in the hands of racial discrimination.
Demonstrations took over the towns of both
Little Rock and
Jena.
White demonstrators lined the streets of
Little Rock, taunting and ridiculing the black students.
In
Jena, black demonstrators marched to decry the unfair treatment of the J. Six.
They protested the ruling that the boys would be charged with attempted murder instead of the customary assault and battery.
Five of the six were released under civic pressure and charges were reduced.
The sixth boy was charged, put in jail and held without bail even though the charges had been voided by the appeals court.
Both white and black demonstrators were protesting an event that had serious racial overtones, during their own generations.
President Eisenhower was directly involved in the altercations in Little Rock, sending Federal army troops to reinforce the National Guard who had been federalized by the President.
President George W. Bush expressed his concern over the perceived bias and sent the F.B.I. and the Justice Department to monitor the situation.
Finally, one of the most distressing facts regarding these stories is that white students were never reprimanded or held accountable for their actions at the schools. The L.R. Nine were verbally and physically harassed and abused by white students. One of the Nine actually had acid thrown in her eyes. The black students were continually accused of starting trouble and suspended from school. No white students were ever punished. In Jena, tensions were running high between white and black students. White students actually hung nooses on “their” tree to express their feelings for the black students. As one marcher stated, “If you can figure out how to make a school yard fight into an attempted murder charge, I’m sure you can figure out how to make stringing nooses into a hate crime.” – Latese Brown, 40, of Alexandria
While there were several similarities that defined these two incidents that precipitated action by civil groups, there is one huge difference that made the
Jena incident, although, a relatively small action, in a relatively small town, such a gathering point for civil rights protests.
Available technology made it much easier for the
Jena, Arkansas episode to become a national news story immediately.
Through targeted radio stations, the internet and text messaging, the Little Rock Six brought racial discrimination back into the forefront of the national conversation on racism.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20070924monday.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rock_Nine
