But before the case occurred, the name became known to hundreds - if not thousands - of young Blacks who came to know, quite intimately, that Jena was just another word for racism, rape, violence and humiliation.

After the ravages of Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and its surrounding areas, hundreds of imprisoned people were transported to the Jena Juvenile Justice Center, in Jena, Louisiana, a place that became their nightmare. The place was so medieval and torturous in its treatment of young people that it was severely criticized by a federal judge as a place where people were "treated as if they walked on all fours," before it was closed.

According to published reports put out by the groups Human Rights Watch and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, people arriving at JJJC were beaten, brutalized, harassed and subjected to racist taunts by staff members there. This was after it was reopened in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

They were denied things allegedly required by the Constitution, like grievance forms, calls to family, or pen and paper. They were treated like they were al-Qaeda and this was Guantanamo - this in the country and, in many cases, the state, of their births.
Human Rights Watch and the NAACP LDF have tried to interest state officials in a meaningful investigation, but this has led to little more than lip service. Although federal officials have reportedly announced their intention to investigate, it is equally doubtful that any real, serious investigation will emerge.

As for the media - except for some of the Black press - Jena was little more than a one-day or, at best, a three-day story. Their coverage, such as it was, was little more than a platform to allow local Jenites to exclaim how they weren't racists, and that nooses are just "pranks" used by young'uns to have a little fun.

Five of the Jena 6 – Mychal Bell had not yet been released on bail – wait in Antioch Baptist Church for the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III to speak. Photo: Leandro Huebner, thetowntalk.com

When viewing or listening to locals there, it was almost impossible not to hear the echoes of 50 years ago, when civil rights actions began to stir the South, that "the problem" was, once again, "outside agitators," like the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They were the problem, not "our darkies."

Only with the not-too-subtle death threats from Klan-related groups have we seen that the nooses from the so-called "white tree," which sparked much of the Jena phenomenon, was far more than boys being boys.

The Jena case didn't start with six young schoolboys. It won't end with them.
The case stems from something deep and abiding in the American heart and soul. And it lives in every state of the union - not just in Louisiana.

This shouldn't be the end of the movement, but the spark for more.
Source: "First youth, then hurricane evacuees were tortured by Jena prison guards," San Francisco Bay View, Sept. 19, 2007. For more info, go online to naacpldf.org or hrw.org.

© Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia's latest book, "We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party," winner of the 2005 People's Choice Award, available from South End Press, www.southendpress.org or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download Mp3s of Mumia's commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia's commentaries to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.

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