A Collective Letter for the 20th of September

We, concerned Black students of the University of Texas at Austin, join the National Day of Protest to Free the Jena 6. The Jena 6 are six young Black men who have fallen victim to the unjust and racist American criminal justice system. Today, September 20, 2007, we come together with hundreds of thousands of Black and non-Black citizens across the country to support our brothers’ quest for justice.

The case of the Jena 6 begins in September of 2006. White students at Jena High School hung three nooses from a tree traditionally reserved for white students. While the white students were initially expelled, the board of education overruled the decision, playing it down as an “adolescent prank.” They were eventually given two-days of in-school suspension. Black students staged an impromptu demonstration under the tree. Days later at a school assembly, District Attorney Reed Walters responded that he could “end your lives with the stroke of a pen.” Shortly thereafter, a group of white students jumped a Black student, Robert Bailey, at a local party. The following day, an argument ensued outside of a local convenient store where a white student pulled a shotgun on some Black students. The Black students wrestled the gun away. Bailey, among them, was later charged with theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery, and disturbing the peace.

The events culminated on December 4th when Black students jumped a white student for bragging about having beaten up Bailey. The white student checked into a local hospital and was released a few hours later to attend a school event. Six Black students -- Mychal Bell, Carwin Jones, Theodore Shaw, Robert Bailey, and Bryant Pervis – the Jena 6, were arrested and charged with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Mychal Bell, 16, the only one to have had a trial, was tried as an adult and convicted of attempted murder by an all-white jury. Bell faced a miximum 22 years in prison. This past Friday, the conviction was dismissed. The District Attorney must decide whether or not he wants to re-try Bell as a juvenile. The other 5 await trial.

But we are not deceived. The recent overturning of Mychal Bell’s conviction is little more than an attempt to pacify and mislead those outraged by this egregious miscarriage of justice. While Bell will no longer be charged as an adult, he still faces a possible re-trial in juvenile court. It would be both erroneous and naïve for us to believe that justice has been served. Justice would be the complete dismissal of all charges; justice would be the freeing of the Jena 6; justice would be reparations not only for the Jena 6, whose lives have been interrupted, but also to their families and the Black community of Jena who have been traumatized by this ordeal. Justice is not a re-trial in a court system that has proven itself unjust.

While the specifics of the Jena 6 case are startling, they are not altogether surprising. Similar to Hurricane Katrina, not unlike the New York Police Department’s murder of Sean Bell, this case exposes a wider set of issues still prevalent in today’s society, namely the persistence of deep-rooted structural racism perpetuated by the myth of a color-blind society.

But it is both inspiring and encouraging to see that, despite a lack of mainstream media attention, people all over the country have mobilized in support of the Jena 6. We understand that neither a court decision nor a protest alone will prevent these atrocities from occurring in the future. This can only be done through the radical transformation of American society. However, we find it imperative to come together in order to build a foundation from which these aims may be met. We, as concerned Black students, stand firm in our pursuit of justice.