Race War?

New Orleans isn't the only part of Louisiana looking for federal aid.

Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Jena in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate. Self-proclaimed spokeman for African-Americans Rev. Al Sharpton is gathering an all-star black legislator posse to head to the House Judiciary Committee and urge them to have the local district attorney explain his actions to Congress.

"What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice," Sharpton told the AP. "Our fathers in the 1960's had to penetrate the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, we have to do the same thing." Also in Jena was Rev. Jesse Jackson and interim NAACP president Dennis Courtland Hayes.

The story begins at a high school assembly in August 2006, when a black freshman asked the assistant principal whether African-Americans could sit under a tree that had traditionally been used only by whites. The school official replied, "You can sit anywhere you want." The next morning, students arrived at classes to find nooses -- two black and one gold at the tree -- which happen to be the official school colours. Racist? Sure. Full of school pride? Definitely!

After learning three white students were responsible, principal Scott Windham recommended they be expelled for the year. A school board committee ruled the incident was a prank without racial overtones and reduced the punishment to an in-school suspension. Federal prosecutors refused to investigate the incident as a possible hate crime.

The decision stunned African-American parents and the black community, who accused school officials of being blind to the legacy of racial violence in Louisiana -- at least 335 blacks were lynched between 1882 and 1968.

The situation quickly got worse.

On November 30th, an unknown arsonist set fire to the school's academic wing. Two days later, a black student attending a mostly white party at the local dance hall the Fair Barn (yes, that is the real name -- apparently they couldn't use the Cracker Barrel), claimed he was severely beaten by a group of white teens. The following day, a white man allegedly pointed a pump-action shotgun at another group of black teenagers in a gas station parking lot. Police charged a 22-year-old white man with simple battery in the Fair Barn assault, but the alleged gun-wielding man faced no charges.

The Jena 6 incident occurred on December 4th, when prosecutors say a group of black students attacked white teenager Justin Barker without provocation. The black teenagers contend he had taunted an African-American student who had been beaten in an earlier attack by whites. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder. That charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.

District Attorney Reed Walters stressed on Wednesday that race had nothing to do with the charges in Jena, and added he didn't charge the white students accused of hanging the nooses because he could find no Louisiana law under which they could be charged. In the beating case, he said, four of the defendants were of adult age under Louisiana law and the only juvenile charged as an adult, Mychal Bell, had a prior criminal record.

"It is not and never has been about race," Walters said. "It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions."

Bell, 16 at the time of the December attack, is the only one of the "Jena 6" to be tried so far. He was convicted on an aggravated second-degree battery count that could have sent him to prison for 15 years, but the conviction was overturned last week when a state appeals court said he should not have been tried as an adult.

Last month, school officials cut down the tree in the hopes that it's removal would help ease racial tension.

It's not hard to believe that there's still racism in the south, even in 2007, just as it's no surprise that Sharpie is camera-ready to crusade. For all the inequity the story is presenting, I hope that Big Al doesn't fuck things up, since his use of the media to push issues for blacks always tilts the spotlight halfway (or more) on himself.

And if you're still reading this, just stop, okay. After the last six paragraphs without any funny you should have turned away. If you read this far because this is the first you're hearing about the Jena 6 then you need to really get your news first and then come here. Other than keeping tabs on Sharpie occasionally, the only coverage here is couple of kitty shots of celebutants and some slanderous comments on the free-range idiot (humanicus douchebagerous).