Anderson@Large

We Are Family

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
-- Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. convened a meeting of the family yesterday at the 11th annual Wall Street Project conference. The kinfolks included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Florida state Sen. Tony Hill, Davey D, Janice Mathis, Marc Morial, Charles Ogletree Jr. and Charles Steele Jr.

The purpose of the gathering was to get an update on the state of black America and discuss solutions to the challenges facing black folks, including the “subprime crime crisis.”

Ogletree observed that it was “the best of times and the worst of times.” While a black, a woman and a Latino are running for president, six black teenagers face a 20-year prison sentence for a schoolyard fight. So, there has been “progress but also regress.”

Morial agreed that it “ain’t been no crystal stair” but cautioned:

We dishonor Whitney Young, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., James Farmer, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer and Mary McLeod Bethune if we suggest that we’ve made no progress. We do not have to define our position by saying that the nation has not made progress.

But that doesn’t mean black folks should allow outsiders to define their community. The gathering rejected the claim of non-kinfolks that Sen. Barack Obama’s historic victory in the Iowa caucuses means race no longer matters. There is structural inequality in the system. Rev. Jackson said:

One can be out of slavery, out of Jim Crow, have the right to vote and starve to death. We’re beyond the barbarism that hurt us and embarrassed white people. Today, we are fighting for equality. The National Urban League’s annual report, “State of Black America,” measures where we are.

And where are we? Blacks are last in wealth and business revenues but first in poverty, home foreclosures, unemployment and incarceration rates, infant mortality and life expectancy. Morial noted:

The economic disparity is the widest of all the disparities. We may want to feel good and have a sense that there is no more racism but the facts show that the disparities are real.

There is a growing divide in black America. It is a tale of two cities within. As a result of civil rights laws, affirmative action and doors being opened, we have a class of success. This growing divide between the have-some and the have-not-a-lot threatens the sense of cohesion we need around core issues of economic equality and protection of civil rights.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee underscored the importance of unity in the community:

No agenda will be accomplished if we are divided. If we follow after symbolism rather than substance…I don’t talk about race. I talk about opportunity. No movement can embrace all Americans unless all boats are lifted.

If we deny our history, we deny those dusty bodies lying in dusty soils. You cannot abandon who we are just so that you can get to where you want to go. We must not abandon who we are because of what we have achieved.

Janice Mathis captured the family’s mood:

We were enslaved as a group. Segregated as a group. Denied voting rights as a group. It’s still group time. Race still matters.

March on Washington for Justice

The Justice Department isn’t coming to prosecute hate crimes so the black community is going to the Justice Department.

Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, CEO of Realizing the Dream, the National Action Network, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, radio personalities Steve Harvey and Tom Joyner, community leaders, activists and others will march against nationwide racism at the Justice Department on Friday, Nov. 16.

Rev. Sharpton said:

The rally is a cornerstone of the Fall Campaign for Justice which originated as a result of the alarming number of hate crimes and instances of injustice occurring across the country from a noose hanging at Columbia University and swastikas appearing on synagogues in New York, to the Jena 6 in Louisiana. The unprecedented number of incidents of bigotry cannot be allowed to continue and it is time for the federal government to step in and intervene.

Protesters will gather at Freedom Plaza from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. They will then march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Justice Department, where like the Battle of Jericho, they will circle the building seven times.

Buses are departing from major cities, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham. To reserve a seat, click here.

For more info, call 1-877-626-4651 or visit the National Action Network’s website.

Jena 6: Race and Juvenile Injustice

The House Judiciary Committee's hearing on Jena 6 marks a turning point in the federal government's response to hate crimes and race-related school violence. The witnesses included:

• Richard Cohen, president and CEO, Southern Poverty Law Center
• Rev. Brian Moran, pastor, Jena Antioch Baptist Church, and president, NAACP Jena Chapter
• Charles J. Ogletree Jr., executive director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School
• Rev. Al Sharpton, president, National Action Network
• Donald Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana

The hearing was a study in contrasts. On one side, Democrats, led by Chairman John Conyers Jr., voiced outrage at the double standard of juvenile justice and the Justice Department's cavalier response to allegations of hate crimes.

The other side was largely no-shows. A few Republicans showed up long enough to express their concern for Justin Barker, the white teen whose beating led to the arrest of the Jena 6.

It's important to note that no one condones the beatdown. Instead, the issue is the "two-tier justice system." The black teens were "dramatically overcharged" – attempted second degree murder – for a school fight that should have been handled by the school system.

Rep. Dan Lungren asserted a relationship between "family structure" and juvenile delinquency. Lungren used "single parent family" as a proxy for race.

Prof. Ogletree flatly rejected Lungren's claim:

It's not the structure of the family. It's the structure of the criminal justice system. It's too easy to say "family structure" is the cause and consequence of the problem. It's bigger than that. You must also look at disparities in punishment and charges.

Later on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, Ogletree said:

A noose is a hate crime. The government chose not to prosecute them…That's what makes people so upset. Why is it that one set of conduct which violates the law was prosecuted. And another set was handled within the school system. It's a disparity. It's based on race and it's hard to justify under these circumstances.

To read the witnesses' prepared testimony, click here.

Jena 6: National Day of Support

Mychal Bell, one of the Jena 6, was released from prison last week. But he's not off the hook. Bell is due back in court on Tuesday and faces prosecution as a juvenile. Charges are also pending against the five other black youth.

It's still a just-us system. So artist/activist Mos Def is spearheading the campaign for a National Student Walk-Out today at 12 noon Central Time. In a video message, Mos said:

This is the time for black people to support the Jena 6, and call attention to the unequal treatment the criminal justice system is dishing out not only in Jena, Louisiana but across this nation…We all live in Jena. Jena, Louisiana is the same as “Jena” New York. From Mychal Bell to Sean Bell, our communities continue to be targeted.

Joining in the call for a national day of support are Common, Erykah Badu, M1, Talib Kweli, MC Lyte, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Sankofa Community Empowerment, Change the Game, the National Hip Hop Political Convention, the Hip Hop Association, Color of Change and student leaders from over 100 campuses.

High school students and grown folks are asked to wear black to show there’s unity in the community. For more info, click here.

Jena 6 Update

Last week's protest in Jena marks a turning point in the civil rights movement and black civic engagement. Black talk radio, bloggers and websites mobilized tens of thousands of African Americans to go to a small town in Louisiana and demand justice for the Jena 6.

Though the charges against Mychal Bell have been thrown out, he remains locked up.

At Saturday's National Action Network rally, Michael Hardy, general counsel of NAN, observed:

If you're following the law, Mychal Bell would be free right now. He's serving time for a crime that the court said he shouldn't have been tried for in the first place.

So the Rev. Al Sharpton will keep the pressure on. Sharpton and Mychal's parents, Marcus Jones and Melissa Bell, will travel to Washington, DC this week to meet with Rep. John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Their goal: haul LaSalle Parish district attorney Reed Walters before the committee to explain his double standard of criminal prosecution.

During the Q&A at Sharpton's weekly rally, I asked NAN executive director Charlie King what's next. King said:

We made history in Jena and will continue to do so. This is just the beginning, not the end.

In addition to pushing for a congressional hearing, NAN wants an investigation to determine whether there has been prosecutorial misconduct. If so, Walters should be held accountable just like the district attorney in the Duke lacrosse rape case.

For more info, contact NAN's Criminal Justice Initiative at 212/690-3070.

Journey to Jena

I knew it was time to weigh in on Jena 6 when out of nowhere, a woman at the 2nd Brooklyn Prisoner Reentry Conference started talking about this travesty of justice, which stems from a black student sitting under a "whites only" tree.

I asked Karyl Hawes-Jones why she cared about what happened in a backwater town in Louisiana. Karyl said:

Where do I start? Racism is not just in Louisiana. We know that racism is everywhere. It's not just the Jena 6 we have to worry about. One can look at what's happening in New York with all the police brutality and all the shootings…Those boys are supposed to spend 22 years in prison for a tree!

Convictions against one of the six teenagers, Mychal Bell, have been thrown out on the grounds that he should not have been tried as an adult. But he remains incarcerated.

Bell could face prosecution as a juvenile and possibly imprisoned until age 21. The five others are awaiting trial on charges of attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

In an email earlier this week, Judge Arthur L. Burnett Sr., national executive director of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, called the prosecution of the black teenagers "a gross example of prosecutorial discretion. This could become the 'poster board' story for reform of our juvenile justice system all over America."

Tonight, radio personality Michael Baisden will MC a rally at Riverfront Center in Alexandria, La. Special guests will include the Rev. Al Sharpton, George Wilborn and Ice Cube. Music will be provided by Eddie G, Eric Roberson, Don Diego and others.

On Thursday, thousands are expected to march and rally in Jena and demand that all charges be dropped. Some will head over to where the tree used to be (it has since been cut down).

Buses are leaving for Jena from all around the country. For those of us who can't make the journey, black is the color of unity. Folks are asked to wear black in solidarity with the young brothers who are caught up in an unequal justice system.

To add your voice to a justice for the Jena 6 petition, click here (and here).

No justice. No peace.