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<font size=3>From: Grace Boggs <glbg@sbcglobal.net> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><b>LIVING FOR CHANGE
<br>
</b>THE JENA 6 AND BLACK LEADERSHIP <br>
By Stephen Ward <br>
Michigan Citizen, Oct.7-13, 2007 <br><br>
Many people view the September 20 march in Jena as a re-kindling of the
spirit of the civil rights movement. With thousands of
peaceful marchers, nationally recognized figures (Al Sharpton, Jesse
Jackson, and Martin Luther King III), and the bright lights of the
national news media, the march did appear to be in the mode of the 50s
and 60s. <br><br>
But this should not lead us to view the Jena 6 case as simply a
continuation of 1950s racism or to suggest that “nothing has changed..”
To do so not only disrespects the efforts of those who made monumental
contributions to our struggle and to our society during that period,
but also ignores the unique circumstances and great challenges of
our time. <br><br>
The aim of today’s struggles should not and cannot be to reproduce
the protests of the civil rights era. Those struggles were
designed to draw the nation’s attention to the brutal injustice of Jim
Crow segregation, mobilize African American communities, and force the
federal government to secure the rights of black citizens—with the
underlying goal of full access for black people into the institutions of
American life. <br><br>
What are the goals of today’s protests? White supremacist ideas and
practices still confront us, but the world in which we live and the
forces against which we struggle today are in many ways different.
Despite obvious similarities, the blatant injustice in the Jena 6 case is
not a reflection of 1950s Jim Crow injustice. Rather, it is a
manifestation of a 21st century criminal justice system that overpolices
and criminalizes black youth. It is not, then, a matter of access
to the system, but a need to transform the system. <br><br>
Nostalgia for the 1960s can also be disempowering for young people who
are searching for models of activism and organizing. It tends to
re-inscribe the primacy of charismatic leaders like Sharpton
and Jackson who take their place at the front of the march, draw
the cameras and provide the sound bites. This type of leadership is
designed for public spectacle, not serious movement building. Their
talents and commitments notwithstanding, Sharpton and Jackson remain
stuck in a mode of protest politics that is increasingly out of line with
current realities and challenges. <br><br>
Which brings us to the wide and impressive participation of young African
Americans in the Jena 6 mobilization. To uncover and nurture the
emerging black leadership that I believe is inherent in this
mobilization, we need to ask young people why so many of them were
moved to protest the injustice in Jena. There are obvious answers
—outrage at the unfair treatment of their peers; a basic sense of
fairness, etc. But to engage them in a substantive discussion of
this question is to seek a deeper understanding of how black youth see
the world and their relationship to it and invite them to share
their visions for changing the world. <br><br>
We should also ask young people what participation in the march meant to
them. They have already begun to tell us. For example,
<i>Citizen</i> readers will recall that Amber Jeffries, a seventh grade
student at Nsoroma, wrote that her participation in the protest “was life
changing” (September 30, 2007). University of Michigan students who
participated in the protest organized a program titled “From Jim
Crow to Jena 6” on Sept. 26 to share their experiences and discuss the
meanings of the case. They also described their participation as a
powerful, life changing experience. <br><br>
These and other statements from young people saying that they were
changed forever through this protest highlight the central importance of
<i>transformation</i> in black leadership. Let us develop leaders
who seek both to transform themselves (that is, to continually grow,
develop their capacity for political action, and realize their fullest
potential) while also working to transform the society. <br><br>
The Jena 6 case can help to do this if we use it to foster an
interdisciplinary dialogue and a substantive, sustained discourse (and
mobilization) within black communities around the criminally unjust
system—as well as the crisis of our schools (the Jena 6 case, after all,
began within the context of a school). In this way we can begin to
imagine and engage in struggles to transform these systems so that
they work for our youth. <br><br>
<i>Stephen Ward teaches at the University of Michigan and is a member of
the Boggs Center board, <br><br>
<br>
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