[News] Jena 6: National Student Walk-Out! Monday, October 1, 2007

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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
    * The Jena School District superintendent to be removed from office.

For more info contact info at mxgm.org
To add your school to the list assata at pitt.edu or spjlewis at hotmail.com



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