Quite on the eve of Rev. Sharpton’s Justice Department protest

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Shawn Williams

Today in a conversation regarding Friday's march, a friend of mine extolled Rev. Al Sharpton's ability to organize. I believe Friday will show us the true extent of this widely held opinion and offer a glimpse where Black activism stands as a result of the Jena 6 activities.

Rev. Sharpton's National Action Network is leading a March on the United States Department of Justice. "We feel that the federal government has failed to intervene in the cases of hate crimes — swastikas and nooses," Sharpton said on the groups website. "Since the federal government won't come to the people, we're going to bring the people to the federal government."

I'm at a loss on this one. I'm not in the predicting business, but I'm trying to figure out where the marchers will come from. Maybe some of the people who missed out on Jena want to get involved and will show up in D.C.

To be real, this march has been a non-factor on the internet. The only exception is a counter-protest by one blogger for what she perceives as silence by Shaprton regarding the Dunbar Village rape case. Rev. Sharpton promoted the march on radio -Michael Baisden and Tom Joyner- but there was no effort to reach out to what most have agreed is a powerful part of the new civil rights movement.

In a Chicago Tribune article regarding the place of black bloggers, Rev. Sharpton himself spoke highly of the new medium. "Ten years ago this couldn't have happened," said Sharpton, who said he first heard about the Jena case on the Internet. "You didn't have the Internet and you didn't have black blogs and you didn't have national radio shows. Now we can talk to all of black America every day. We've been able to form our own underground railroad of information, and when everybody else looks up, it's already done."

Well I guess only half of the Underground Railroad was used to promote this march. I can say I was surprised when I found out that there were meetings regarding a March on Washington and none of the bloggers that I communicate with were present either physically, by phone, or by webcam. Though I was surprised, I was not at all offended. I respect the NAN's right to organize this march as they see fit, but there's no doubt the group missed out on an opportunity.

My thought from the beginning has been, let's wait and see what happens. By now we can all agree, including Rev. Sharpton I'm sure, that there is no one leader for Black American and we are not a monolithic people. But my guess is that the blogs will be buzzing one way or another after Friday's protest.

Judge J.P. Mauffray opens Jena 6 case to the public

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Shawn Williams

It seems the La Salle Parish has conceded a major point in the case of one of the Jena 6 defendants. Judge J.P. Mauffray has decided to open the juvenile trial of Mychal Bell to the public.

A lawsuit filed by the Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, CNN and others seeks the reversal of Mauffray's decision to close all the proceedings in Bell's Case. According to a story that will appear in Friday's Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit is set to be heard next Wednesday while Bell is scheduled to go on trial Dec.6 on charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy.

Read the Howard Witt's Tribune story here.

Baisden issues apology for situation with Color of Change funding

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Shawn Williams

Michael Baisden issued an apology to Color of Change regarding statements that were made on The Michael Baisden Show. I couldn't find the information on his website, but the response is available at his Mingle City Forum. Below is Mr. Baisden's Response to Color of Change followed by comments that I left on the Mingle City site.

The Michael Baisden show and staff were given inaccurate information regarding donations made by the public and David Bowie. We apologize to our listeners and to ColorofChange for not seeking more reliable sources. According to documentation provided by the organization through their web site, all the funds collected by ColorofChange have been distributed to the families as promised.

We do, however, respect the right of four of the Jena 6 families who have insisted that ColorofChange discontinue collection of any monies on their behalf. But this should not reflect on the integrity of this organization which has collected and distributed over $200,000 to their legal defense.

Any insinuations that were made about me wanting to be the sole fundraiser for legal defense is ridiculous. I am too tired after my radio gig to take on that responsibility, and furthermore, it is impossible. No one man or organization can fund the movement of an entire nation.

I am relieved to have put this behind us so that both our organizations can get back to the business of helping people. There is nothing wrong with having disagreements, as long as you love the people enough to work it out, sooner rather than later.

Thanks again for your support of the many organizations that are doing an outstanding job of raising money to help those who desperately need it. We’ve got a long way to go family and we won’t get there unless we work together. Divided we fall!

My Comment at Mingle City

I was very disappointed by Mr. Baisden's characterization of Color of Change as "shady" on his show earlier this week. While entitled to his own opinion, Mr. Baisden should have thought about what those comments may have meant to "the movement", of which he is a crucial part.

Though he rightly apologized for not checking sources, he did not make mention of the inflammatory statements he made regarding individuals at Color of Change. I say inflammatory because the internet has been burning up due to his “shady” comments more so than his accusation of financial indiscretions.

A wise friend told me that "the truth spoken out of season bears no fruit." Well there hasn't been any truth to the charges levied against Color of Change, and the opinion of the group being "shady" has produced nothing but a setback to the cause.

I will continue to listen to The Michael Baisden Show, because I believe it provides value, and a necessary discourse between African-American men and women. But I would urge Mr. Baisden to consider the place he now holds in Black America. What is acceptable in a "love, lust, and lies" environment may be totally inappropriate when it comes to issues of justice, equality, and the betterment of our community.

Shawn Williams
Dallas South Blog

Ta-Nehisi Coates in Sunday’s DMN on the relevance of Al Sharpton

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Shawn Williams

Speaking of Points, Mr. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a scathing piece titled Why Al Sharpton has become irrelevant that appeared in Sunday's Dallas Morning News. Coates takes issue with the view that Mr. Sharpton represents the opinions of Black America, questioning his credibility and his record in the process.

Here are a few excerpts from Mr. Coates opinion piece.

In more modern times, black leaders could point to real events to show their worthiness. Louis Farrakhan resurrected the Nation of Islam. During his presidential run in 1988, the Rev. Jesse Jackson won five primaries in which almost all blacks voted for him. Mr. Sharpton's résumé isn't even in the same pile. His list of misses includes backing Tawana Brawley's fraudulent accusations of rape and his shilling on TV for predatory lenders. His 2004 campaign was a farcical remix of Mr. Jackson's.

This "black Jesus" paradigm has become even more useful in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. It allows a struggle – indeed, millions of people – to be boiled down to a single, preferably colorful, person.

And for cable networks, Mr. Sharpton is the gift that keeps on giving. He provides an easily disposable villain, a simple out for his most loyal constituency: white racists. For those who already doubted the humanity of black folks, the bombastic Mr. Sharpton is a perfect confirmation.

Coates piece also recently appeared in The Washington Post. The Time Magazine contributor makes a pretty good case, though I'm wondering where the zeal with which he's going after Rev. Sharpton comes from.

I've had a number of comments and e-mails, even prior to Jena, from black readers who are frustrated by Sharpton. Considered an opportunist by some and a camera hog by others, Rev. Sharpton takes criticism from both sides.

Though Sharpton hasn't achieved the success of Rev. Jesse Jackson or the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, I admire him for fighting the good fight. But the question has become whether the fights Sharpton and his National Action Network have recently picked are the ones that need to be fought.

I think the Washington D. C. March on Hate Crimes put together by Rev. Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and others will speak to the point that Mr. Coates makes in his column. I'm sure they expect no less than a Jena type turnout, though it will take more than that to make a dent in D.C.

Black American hasn't elected a leader to my knowledge, but when there's a question about how black folks feel (IMUS comes to mind), Sharpton has become the media's go to guy. I'd like to see Rev. Sharpton give an opportunity to some of the younger members of the National Action Network. At the release of Mychal Bell in Jena, any number of pastors or leaders could have made remarks regarding where the case stood.

In my opinion this is not the time to have this discussion, yet I acknowledge that the time is drawing near. The frustration in some of the comments I've seen from younger African-Americans show that this particular phenomenon could be reaching a tipping point. Check back with me in a couple of weeks.

The spin is on in Jena, Louisiana; officials/Jena Times editor look to rewrite history

Posted on October 26, 2007 by Shawn Williams

It seems like some of the good folks of Jena have gathered behind the woodshed and come up with some revisionist history regarding the racial unrest that has happened in their town over the last year.

The Christian Scientist Monitor has allowed Craig Franklin, co-editor of the Jena Times, to retell the accounts of Jena's twisted saga at their site. The story is titled Media Myths About the Jena 6.

I'll let everyone read the story for themselves, but here are two examples of what Franklin wants us to believe.

Myth 1: The Whites-Only Tree. There has never been a "whites-only" tree at Jena High School. Students of all races sat underneath this tree. When a student asked during an assembly at the start of school last year if anyone could sit under the tree, it evoked laughter from everyone present – blacks and whites. As reported by students in the assembly, the question was asked to make a joke and to drag out the assembly and avoid class.

Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to the expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at black students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team. (The students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of "Lonesome Dove.")

The committee further concluded that the three young teens had no knowledge that nooses symbolize the terrible legacy of the lynchings of countless blacks in American history. When informed of this history by school officials, they became visibly remorseful because they had many black friends. Another myth concerns their punishment, which was not a three-day suspension, but rather nine days at an alternative facility followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday detentions, attendance at Discipline Court, and evaluation by licensed mental-health professionals. The students who hung the nooses have not publicly come forward to give their version of events.

Town citizens, at least some of the townspeople, are now coalescing around Franklin's story in hopes of projecting the racist truths of this story on the black townfolk and the media. Alan Bean, head of Friends of Justice , has already posted a point by point rebuff of Franklin's article.

Bean's post is titled The story you haven't heard (unless you've been paying attention). Here are his answers to myths 1 & 2.

The “lazy Negro theory” was invented to address an obvious question: “If the Jena high school courtyard is as integrated as Mr. Franklin claims, why did Kenneth Purvis ask if he could sit under the tree? I do not know if Mr. Purvis was laughing nervously as he asked the question, and I don’t see that it matters. Initially, Jena High students, black and white, freely admitted that the courtyard has always been segregated–the sidewalk serving as the line of demarcation. While it is true that black students occasionally wandered to the white side of the courtyard, this was not typical behavior.

Hence the question. It should also be noted that Kenneth and a few friends tested out their new freedom by sitting under the tree after school.

The Lonesome Dove theory was initially freestanding: the kids watched the Western on television and were so impressed with the hanging scene, they decided to hang a few nooses of their own. But no one could explain why they chose this particular tree, or why the nooses appeared the day after Kenneth’s question and the Principal’s answer.

Now we learn that the nooses were a poke at white members of the rodeo team. We are to believe that some white kids on the rodeo team were playfully suggesting that they were going to string up other white members of the team because . . .

You see the problem. What could possibly follow the “because”? Mr. Franklins’ desperation is painfully evident at this point. He’s doing the best with what he’s got–but what he ain’t got much. You can hardly blame the mainstream media (or any sensible person) for preferring the original explanation. It has the advantage of making sense.

Finally, Franklin’s theory can’t explain why then-principal Scott Windham was so horrified by the noose incident that he recommended expulsion for the school year. If this was simply a white-on-white practical joke, Windham’s response can only be seen as a bizarre over-reaction.

The logical conclusion is that Windham was never exposed to the theory Mr. Franklin is selling. Is it just a coincidence that Mr. Windham was quickly shuffled to a less controversial position within the school administration. Perhaps, but the timing raises questions. The mainstream media, for better or worse, has given very little attention to this issue.

Looks like 2-0 Bean to me after two rounds. I'd advise everyone to go check out both posts and report back with your take. The lying and justifying has been going on for 400 years, I guess it just won't stop.

Chicago Tribune and other media sue to gain access to closed Mychal Bell proceedings in Jena case

Posted on October 22, 2007 by Shawn Williams

On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune will announce a motion that they have filed in LaSalle Parish District court contesting the decisions by Judge J.P. Mauffray to close the proceedings in Mychal Bell's juvenile case and order all the parties involved not to speak about it.

According to Tuesday's story by Howard Witt, The Chicago Tribune is the lead plaintiff in the petition, which has been joined by the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Co., the Associated Press, the Hearst Corp., the Belo Corp.(Dallas Morning News/Channel 8), the Gannett Corp., CNN and ABC News.

The article goes on to state that the motion filed cites, among other arguments, a 2004 Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that all juvenile proceedings involving certain categories of violent crime—including aggravated second-degree battery—must be conducted in open court.

"The underlying facts of this case have been published, broadcast, editorialized about, blogged and talked about throughout the country and across the globe," the petition states. "There is simply no reason to refuse to allow the trial participants to comment as well."

Read Mr. Witt's entire coverage of the filed motion here.

CNN prepares to air “The Noose:An American Nightmare”; special on legacy of lynching tool

Posted on October 21, 2007 by Shawn Williams

CNN's Kyra Phillips is developing a one-hour investigation into the noose as a symbol of hate. The special will air on CNN this Tuesday October 23rd at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 pm Eastern).

The network has created a website for Ms. Phillips special that chronicles the recent re-emergence of nooses in America. It includes video footage that will air on Tuesday.

Visit the American Nightmare site here.

See the Dallas South noose post here.

Congressional hearings held on Jena 6, Rep Jackson Lee get’s aggrevated

Posted on October 17, 2007 by Shawn Williams

I heard some of the testimony regarding the Jena 6 case that was give before the House Judiciary committee on Tuesday. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston was pretty upset about the whole thing.

Ryan Grim of The Politico was on hand for the hearing and reports on the tension filled session. (See Grim's article Jena Six draws volatile mix). He details Jackson Lee's emotional interrogation of witnesses from the Dept. of Justice.

“I am almost in tears. Mychal Bell is now in jail. … The tragedy of this case is that it called out for federal intervention for the protection of children,” (Lee) says. “Shame on you.”

…Jackson Lee grows louder, directing her anger now at (Donald) Washington, who she pointedly notes is the first black western district attorney. “I’m asking you to find a way to release Mychal Bell and the Jena Six,” Jackson Lee cries. “What are you doing now?!”

Also, check out Howard Witt's article from the hearings (Justice Department May Probe Bias In Jena). Witt's Chicago Tribune article also has video attached.

Witt's article, Washington said for the first time that the hanging of nooses from a shade tree in Jena constituted a federal hate crime. Washington went on the say that federal authorities opted not to prosecute the case because of the ages of the white youths involved.

It ain't over.

3rd and Final Installment of Howard Witt Interview

Posted on October 12, 2007 by Shawn Williams

Again, many thanks to the Chicago Tribune’s Howard Witt for his work and this interview. The interview can be viewed in it’s entirety at NowPublic.

DSB Why do you think it took the national media almost 4 months after your original article to cover what was happening in Jena.

HW: It was the complexity of the story, as I mentioned above, which eludes the grasp of reporters-especially TV reporters–in search of simple sound-bites. And it was the sensitivity of anything having to do with race in our society-many reporters shy from such controversial stories.

DSB: What are your thoughts on the debate that has taken place since the Jena Rally regarding how the popular media covers race issues and people of color?

HW: Well, to the extent that people are talking about this issue, I think that’s important. But I have been disturbed-though not surprised-by the backlash from many whites in Jena and elsewhere across the country, who insist that somehow the whole story has not been told and that the media has twisted the Jena story to make the white townsfolk look bad.

I can’t vouch for what other reporters have done with this story, but for my part, I tried very hard to get the white leaders of the town to speak with me when I was down there reporting my original story back in May. Most of them refused my interview requests.

Nor did reporters invent the facts about Jena, including the fact that most of Jena’s white voters cast their ballots for former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke when he ran for Louisiana governor, or the fact that there’s a white barbershop in town where they won’t cut black men’s hair for fear of dirtying their combs and scissors and angering their white patrons.

DSB: Do you think there will be any changes in the coverage moving forward?

HW: Not on my part. I’m continuing to follow the trials of the Jena 6 as they progress. And I’m always on the lookout for other important civil-rights stories that should be told.

I think we can all hope that, in the wake of the Jena demonstration, other reporters will come to understand that there is a huge undercurrent of anger and concern in black America these days that we all ignore at our society’s peril.

DSB: Thanks for your time

Mychal Bell Back in Jena, Louisiana Jail, supposedly due to priors

Posted on October 12, 2007 by Shawn Williams

JENA, La. (AP) ? A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy is back in jail after a judge sentenced him on charges that were pending before the attack that put him in the national spotlight, his attorney said Thursday.

Mychal Bell, who along with five other black teenagers had been accused of beating a white classmate, went to juvenile court Thursday expecting another routine hearing, said Carol Powell Lexing, one of Bell's attorneys.

Instead, after a six-hour hearing, state District Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. sentenced him to 18 months on two counts of simple battery and two counts of criminal destruction of property, Lexing said.

He had been hit with those charges before the Dec. 4 attack on classmate Justin Barker.

"He's locked up again," Marcus Jones said of his 17-year-old son. "No bail has been set or nothing. He's a young man who's been thrown in jail again and again, and he just has to take it."

After the attack on Barker, Bell was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charges were reduced and he was convicted of battery. An appeals court threw that conviction out, saying Bell should not have been tried as an adult on that charge.

Racial tensions began rising in August 2006 in Jena after a black student sat under a tree known as a gathering spot for white students. Three white students later hung nooses from the tree. They were suspended but not prosecuted.

More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered recently in Jena to protest what they perceive as differences in how black and white suspects are treated. The case has drawn the attention of civil rights activists including the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

"We feel this was a cruel and unusual punishment," said Sharpton, who was instrumental in organizing the protest held on Sept. 20, the day Bell was originally supposed to be sentenced in the case.

Bell's parents were also ordered to pay all court costs and witness costs, Sharpton said.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Jones said. "I don't know how we're going to pay for any of this. I don't know how we're going to get through this."

Bell and the other five defendants have been charged in connection with the attack on Barker, which left him unconscious and bleeding with facial injuries. According to court testimony, he was repeatedly kicked by a group of students at the high school.

Barker was treated for three hours at an emergency room but was able to attend a school function that evening, authorities have said.

Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theo Shaw were all initially charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit the same. A sixth defendant was charged in the case as a juvenile.

Bell, who was 16 at the time, was convicted in June of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit that crime. LaSalle Parish prosecutor Reed Walters reduced the charges just before the trial. Since then, both of those convictions were dismissed and tossed back to juvenile court, where they now are being tried.

Charges against Bailey, 18, Jones, 19, and Shaw, 18, have been reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. Purvis, 18, has not yet been arraigned.

Story from Associated Press