The family of one of the Jena 6 spoke out on racism, death threats, hip-hop culture, odd Internet postings and how their lives have changed in a meeting yesterday with DiversityInc and other reporters in Washington, D.C.
This occurred seven days after thousands stormed the streets of Jena, La., in protest of the severe treatment of six black teens after a noose incident, shouting, with clinched fists in the air, "Free Jena 6" and "No Justice, No Peace." Caseptla Bailey, mother of Robert Bailey Jr., one of the Jena 6, and her stepdaughter Catrina Wallace spoke out.
"They are denying children of color the right to education," says Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, which hosted the press briefing. "There is a systematic filtering from the school system to the prison system."
The civil-rights organization is working with the families of the Jena 6 to provide legal counseling and has extended its arm to other marginalized blacks in the area.
"We are helping not only the families of the Jena 6 but all the families in Jena, La., [to] organize and strategize," says Tory Pegram, director of development and public education and cultural anthropologist.
Caseptla said her son is an outgoing person who loves people. He is an athlete who earned money cutting hair around the neighborhood. He was also a musician in local churches. However, today he has been the subject of a series of Internet pictures showing him holding hundreds of dollars in his mouth that have prompted many to ask: Where is the money donated to the Jena 6 fund going?
"Robert was working at the time the pictures were taken and I am not going to defend my son for something that is portrayed in the hip-hop culture. I am not going to hold him down and beat him because of the situation," says Caseptla, despite being advised to remain mum about facts that may arise in court.
"Robert is a kid and he was put in a situation where he had to respond as a man," says Caseptla. "This should be a wake-up call to all the men in America to step and take care of their children."
Jena is a town still rampant with racial division, Pegram says.
"The elementary schools are segregated in Jena," says Pegram. "There are three elementary schools—two are 100 percent white and the third is 70 percent white and 30 percent black." The small town is home to 3,000, of which only 12 percent is black.
The six black teenagers were originally arrested and charged with attempted murder. District Attorney Reed Walters later lessened the charges to second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery.
Mychal Bell, the first of the six boys to be tried, was convicted of second-degree battery charges. The decision was later overturned as a federal appeals judge ruled the case was erroneously tried. Bell was released from prison yesterday after a judge reset his $90,000 bail to $45,000 as the case moves to juvenile court.
Recently, the names, addresses and phone numbers of the families involved in the Jena 6 were posted on a neo-Nazi web site. After complaints of death threats, city police beefed up security around the homes of the six high-school teenagers.
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