JENA SIX DRAWS VOLATILE MIX

Jena Six draws volatile mix By: Ryan Grim Oct 16, 2007 08:27 PM EST

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) betrayed some of the sensitivity King referred to as she questioned the Justice Department witnesses. Photo: John Shinkle The hearing is already 20 minutes late in starting, and there’s still no sign of today’s star witness, the Rev. Al Sharpton. Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) opens the proceedings anyway. The House Judiciary Committee hearing would have drawn a packed audience regardless — a crowd that is, by Capitol Hill standards, remarkably diverse — because the topic involves the Jena Six, a half-dozen African-American kids whose moniker has become the rallying cry of a resurgent civil rights movement. A strong contingent of Congressional Black Caucus members is on hand, including CBC Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who’s not even a member of the Judiciary Committee. Twelve Democrats are here at the start, nine of them black. Two Republicans, both white, are also here. “Let me see if I can find a press seat,” Kilpatrick says. There are no vacancies at the media table, but she spies an empty chair on the dais, lifts New York Democratic Rep. Anthony D. Weiner’s nameplate from its slot and pulls up a chair. Even indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) is on hand, despite his lack of membership. The room has a tense and excited feel to it. Two representatives of the Justice Department, Donald Washington, a U.S. attorney from the Western District of Louisiana, and Lisa Krigsten, representing the civil rights division, must defend the department for its decision not to press hate crime charges against teenage noose hangers in Jena, La., and for not doing enough to intervene in a racially disparate prosecution. Washington, an African-American, will draw the most heat from the committee. “I’m sure we’re all familiar with the alleged facts,” says Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), though he and several Democrats enumerate them anyway: On Aug. 31, 2006, “all Hades broke loose,” as Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) puts it. Three nooses were hung from what was known as the “white tree” at Jena High School after a black student requested the principal’s permission to sit under it. No charges were filed, and the culpable students, initially expelled, had their punishment reduced to a suspension and family counseling. Tensions rose, and white District Attorney Reed Walters — who doubled as the school’s attorney — reportedly told students to cool it or he would “erase their lives with the stroke of a pen.” Later that fall, one of the Jena Six, Robert Bailey Jr., had a gun pulled on him by a white student. Bailey wrestled the gun from him andwas charged with stealing it; the white student was charged with nothing. Tensions rose further and white students were “calling folks niggers out in the school yard,” says Johnson. Then in December, six black students beat up a white kid, Justin Barker. “There was a small degree of physical injury to the white student who attended a party,” says Johnson. The six were charged with attempted murder, and the story went national 10 months later when Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. got involved. The story line is generally stipulated. It’s the perception that differs. “Whether or not attempted murder is appropriate under that jurisdiction, I don’t know. I’ve never prosecuted under that jurisdiction,” says Dan Lungren (R-Calif.). “We need to talk about justice being done [to] all of the victims.” Continue reading our story » Page: 1 2

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