We All
Live in Jena
National Call to Action
Monday, October 1st, 2007 at Noon, Central Time.
Artist/ Activist Mos Def along with M1, Talib
Kweli, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Sankofa Community Empowerment, Change the Game, the
National Hip Hop Political Convention, and student leaders from 50
campuses call for a National Student Walk-Out to rally and show support
for the Jena 6, who are being denied their human rights by the Louisiana
criminal justice system.
The Case of the Jena 6
Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the
"white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging
nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for
the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the
school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a
stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena , and the District Attorney did nothing in response to
several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But
when a white student--who had been a vocal supporter of the student’s who hung
the nooses, taunted a black student, called several black students
"nigger"--sustained minor injuries from a school fight, six black
students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the
first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was
convicted. He faced up to 22 years in prison for a school fight until the Black
people began to organize and his conviction was thrown out because he was tried
as an adult. However the DA and the Judge still refuse to set a reasonable bail
or to drop the charges in this case and Mychal is
still in jail!!
Mos Def is asking students worldwide to assist in the fight against racial
injustice and show solidarity for these young people, who have been treated
unequally by the law. The prosecution of these young men symbolizes a terrible
miscarriage of justice, by punishing students who opposed segregation in their
schools and disregarding the threatening acts of others who advocate it.
As students and activists we say enough is enough! What is happening in Jena is
happening all over this country. From Sean Bell to Mychal
Bell, the criminal justice system is killing and incarcerating us. We will not
be silent!
Demands
Judge J.P. Mauffray and District Attorney
Reed Walters have engaged in a string of egregious actions, the most recent of
which was the denial of bail for Bell on Friday. We call for:
1. All charges against the Jena 6 be dropped
2. The immediate release of Mychal
Bell
3. The United States Department of Justice to
convene an immediate inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the arrests and
prosecutions of the Jena 6;
4. Judge Mauffray to be recused from presiding over Bell 's
juvenile court hearings or other proceedings;
5. The Louisiana Office of Disciplinary Counsel to investigate Reed
Walters for unethical and possibly illegal conduct;
6. The Louisiana Judiciary Commission investigate Judge Mauffray for unethical conduct; and
For more info contact info@mxgm.org
To add your school to the list assata@pitt.edu or spjlewis@hotmail.com