[cure-news] UNITED STATES SOCIAL FORUM REPARATIONS RESOLUTION

[Ida Hakim]

UNITED STATES SOCIAL FORUM REPARATIONS RESOLUTION
6/30/2007


WHEREAS the World Social Forum Charter of Principles commits to building 
a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among 
Humankind and between it and the Earth;



WHEREAS the centuries long enforced enslavement of Africans resulted not 
only in the dispersal of millions of our people throughout the 
Caribbean, North, Central and South America, but also a systematic and 
institutionalized second class citizenship in countries comprising the 
TransAtlantic Slavery Diaspora;



WHEREAS the so-called abolishment of the morally illicit trafficking in 
enslaved Africans was redirected to the prison system as a form of 
punishment for alleged criminal conduct, including ?Black Codes? which 
criminalized any behavior of Blacks which threatened the numerous forms 
of institutionalized racism designed to sustain black inferiority and 
economic exploitation based on skin color;



WHEREAS the historical legacy of the Holocaust of Enslavement, the 
ideology of ?white supremacy,? and its economic and cultural effects, 
continue to the present day, in the form of disproportionate access to 
capital and other forms of wealth, jobs, education, and a targeted 
criminalization of Afro-descendants;



WHEREAS the lingering effects of ?plantation slavery? was and is evident 
in the recent treatment of Afro-descendants during Hurricane Katrina, 
who were allowed to die through government sanctioned denial of access 
to life-saving emergency services, and were treated as and called 
?refugees? in their second homeland;



WHEREAS we have been variously referred to as to ?the slaves,? 
?Negroes,? ?Colored people,? ?Niggras,? ?blacks,? ?Niggers,? and 
?African Americans,? but have now agreed to the term, and self-defined 
as, Afro-descendants;



WHEREAS slavery in the Americas brought about the cruelest assault 
imaginable upon a people, who were kidnapped and stolen from their 
native land, and upon their forced arrival to the Americas were 
separated from others who spoke their language, ?seasoned? and ?broken? 
by violence and degradation, including rape, lynching, beatings, torture 
and forced breeding, resulting in a self-hatred, internalized racism, 
devoid of memory of self, and constituting cultural, psychological and 
inter-generational trauma;



WHEREAS international law supports reparations as a bona fide remedy for 
the destruction of collective human rights of Afro-descendants, 
providing for restitution, reconciliation, repatriation and reparations;



WHEREAS the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in 2001 
declared the so-called TransAtlantic Slave Trade as a ?crime against 
humanity? and further opened the doors for legal redress for enslavement 
and colonialism;



WHEREAS there have been historical demands or petitions for ?just 
rewards for honest labor? by formerly enslaved Africans and their 
descendants, from the individual Petition to the Massachusetts State 
Legislature by Belinda in 1782 to the 1867 bill introduced into the 40th 
Congress calling for confiscating land from the former Confederate 
States and redistributing it to the so-called freedmen [also known as 
the ?demand for 40 acres and mule?],



THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that as both participants of the USSF and as 
representatives and supporters of over 300 Afro-descendant reparations 
advocacy organizations, We submit that our collective and just demands 
for reparations clearly represent a key movement building opportunity 
and a means for envisioning and creating a new world.



A Partial List of Organizations:



National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America

National Reparations Congress

African Peoples Solidarity Committee

Baltimore Racial Justice Action

National Commission on Reparations

Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation

All for Reparations and Emancipation

Just Equity

New Panther Vanguard Movement

Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund

California Coalition for Women Prisoners

Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond

Anti-Racist Alliance

Soul Substance

Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Jericho Movement

New Black Panther Party

Kalonji Brotherhood

ITP Movement

Uhuru Movement

Global Afrikan Congress
>From hakimida at reparationsthecure.org  Fri Jul  6 16:45:56 2007
From: hakimida at reparationsthecure.org (Ida Hakim)
Date: Fri Jul  6 16:44:31 2007
Subject: [cure-news] Injustice in Jena: The 'White Tree' 
Message-ID: <468EC624.9010605 at reparationsthecure.org>

Injustice in Jena: The 'White Tree'
A White Judge, White Jury, and White Prosecutor Calling White Witnesses 
Leads To Conviction of Black Youth

by Bill Quigley

In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all 
white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white 
prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial 
of a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been 
making racial taunts was hit by black students. The fight was the 
culmination of a series of racial incidents starting when whites 
responded to black students sitting under the ?white tree? at their 
school by hanging three nooses from the tree. The white jury and white 
prosecutor and all white supporters of the white victim were all on one 
side of the courtroom. The black defendant, 17 year old Mychal Bell, and 
his supporters were on the other. The jury quickly convicted Mychal Bell 
of two felonies - aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated 
battery. Bell, who was a 16 year old sophomore football star at the time 
he was arrested, faces up to 22 years in prison. Five other black youths
await similar trials on attempted second degree murder and conspiracy 
charges.

Yes, you read that correctly. The rest of the story, which is being 
reported across the world in papers in China, France and England, is 
just as chilling.

The trouble started under ?the white tree? in front of Jena High School. 
The ?white tree? is where the white students, 80% of the student body, 
would always sit during school breaks.

In September 2006, a black student at Jena high school asked permission 
from school administrators to sit under the ?white tree.? School 
officials advised them to sit wherever they wanted. They did.

The next day, three nooses, in the school colors, were hanging from the 
?white tree.? The message was clear. ?Those nooses meant the KKK, they 
meant ?Niggers, we?re going to kill you, we?re going to hang you till 
you die,?? Casteptla Bailey, mom of one of the students, told the London 
Observer.

The Jena high school principal found that three white students were 
responsible and recommended expulsion. The white superintendent of 
schools over-ruled the principal and gave the students a three day 
suspension saying that the nooses were just a youthful stunt. 
?Adolescents play pranks,? the superintendent told the Chicago Tribune, 
?I don?t think it was a threat against anybody.?

The African-American community was hurt and upset. ?Hanging those nooses 
was a hate crime, plain and simple,? according to Tracy Bowens, mother 
of students at Jena High.

But blacks in this area of Louisiana have little political power. The 
ten person all-male government of the parish has one African-American 
member. The nine member all-male school board has one African American 
member. (A phone caller to the local school board trying to find out the 
racial makeup of the school board was told there was one ?colored? 
member of the board). There is one black police officer in Jena and two 
black public school teachers.

Jena, with a population of less than 3000, is the largest town in and 
parish (county) seat of LaSalle Parish, Louisiana. There are about 350 
African Americans in the town. LaSalle has a population of just over 
14,000 people - 12% African-American.

This is solid Bush and David Duke Country - GWB won LaSalle Parish 4 to 
1 in the last two elections; Duke carried a majority of the white vote 
when he ran for Governor of Louisiana. Families earn about 60% of the 
national average. The Census Bureau reports that less than 10% of the 
businesses in LaSalle Parish are black owned.

Jena is the site of the infamous Juvenile Correctional Center for Youth 
that was forced to close its doors in 2000, only two years after 
opening, due to widespread brutality and racism including the choking of 
juveniles by guards after the youth met with a lawyer. The U.S. 
Department of Justice sued the private prison amid complaints that 
guards paid inmates to fight each other and laughed when teens tried to 
commit suicide.

Black students decided to resist and organized a sit-in under the ?white 
tree? at the school to protest the light suspensions given to the 
noose-hanging white students.

The white District Attorney then came to Jena High with law enforcement 
officers to address a school assembly. According to testimony in a later 
motion in court, the DA reportedly threatened the black protesting 
students saying that if they didn?t stop making a fuss about this 
?innocent prank? I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I can 
take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.? The school was put on 
lockdown for the rest of the week.

Racial tensions remained high throughout the fall.

On the night of Thursday November 30, 2006, a still unsolved fire burned 
down the main academic building of Jena High School.

On Friday night, December 1, a black student who showed up at a white 
party was beaten by whites. On Saturday, December 2, a young white man 
pulled out a shotgun in a confrontation with young black men at the 
Gotta Go convenience store outside Jena before the men wrestled it away 
from him. The black men who took the shotgun away were later arrested, 
no charges were filed against the white man.

On Monday, December 4, at Jena High, a white student - who allegedly had 
been making racial taunts, including calling African American students 
?niggers? while supporting the students who hung the nooses and who beat 
up the black student at the off-campus party - was knocked down, punched 
and kicked by black students. The white victim was taken to the hospital 
treated and released. He attended a social function that evening.

Six black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second 
degree murder. All six were expelled from school.

The six charged were: 17-year-old Robert Bailey Junior whose bail was 
set at $138,000; 17-year-old Theo Shaw - bail $130,000; 18-year-old 
Carwin Jones - bail $100,000; 17-year-old Bryant Purvis - bail $70,000; 
16 year old Mychal Bell, a sophomore in high school who was charged as 
an adult and for whom bail was set at $90,000; and a still unidentified 
minor.

Many of the young men, who came to be known as the Jena 6, stayed in 
jail for months. Few families could afford bond or private attorneys.

Mychal Bell remained in jail from December 2006 until his trial because 
his family was unable to post the $90,000 bond. Theo Shaw has also 
remained in jail. Several of the other defendants remained in jail for 
months until their families could raise sufficient money to put up bonds.

The Chicago Tribune wrote a powerful story headlined ?Racial Demons Rear 
Heads.? The London Observer wrote: ?Jena is gaining national notoriety 
as an example of the new ?stealth? racism, showing how lightly sleep the 
demons of racial prejudice in America?s Deep South, even in the year 
that a black man, Barak Obama, is a serious candidate for the White 
House.? The British Broadcasting Company aired a TV special report ?Race 
Hate in Louisiana 2007.?

The Jena 6 and their families were put under substantial pressure to 
plead guilty. Mychal Bell was reported to have been leaning towards 
pleading guilty right up until his trial when he decided he would not 
plead guilty to a felony.

When it finally came, the trial of Mychal Bell was swift. Bell was 
represented by an appointed public defender.

On the morning of the trial, the DA reduced the charges from attempted 
second degree murder to second degree aggravated battery and conspiracy. 
Aggravated battery in Louisiana law demands the attack be with a 
dangerous weapon. The dangerous weapon? The prosecutor was allowed to 
argue to the jury that the tennis shoes worn by Bell could be considered 
a dangerous weapon used by ?the gang of black boys? who beat the white 
victim.

Most shocking of all, when the pool of potential jurors was summoned, 
fifty people appeared - every single one white.

The LaSalle Parish clerk defended the all white group to the Alexandria 
Louisiana Town Talk newspaper saying that the jury pool was selected by 
computer. ?The venire [panel of prospective jurors] is color blind. The 
idea is for the list to truly reflect the racial makeup of the 
community, but the system does not take race into factor.? Officials 
said they had summoned 150 people, but these were the only people who 
showed up.

The all-white jury which was finally chosen included two people friendly 
with the District Attorney, a relative of one of the witnesses and 
several others who were friends of prosecution witnesses.

Bell?s parents, Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones, were not even allowed to 
attend the trial despite their objections, because they were listed as 
potential witnesses. The white victim, though a witness, was allowed to 
stay in the courtroom. The parents, who had been widely quoted in the 
media as critics of the process, were also told they could no longer 
speak to the media as long as the trial was in session. Marcus Jones had 
told the media ?It?s all about those nooses? and declared the charges 
racially motivated.

Other supporters who planned a demonstration in support of Bell were 
ordered by the court not to do so near the courthouse or anywhere the 
judge would see them.

The prosecutor called 17 witnesses - eleven white students, three white 
teachers, and two white nurses. Some said they saw Bell kick the victim, 
others said they did not see him do anything. The white victim testified 
that he did not know if Bell hit him or not.

The Chicago Tribune reported the public defender did not challenge the 
all-white jury pool, put on no evidence and called no witnesses. The 
public defender told the Alexandria Town talk after resting his case 
without calling any witnesses that he knew he would be second-guessed by 
many but was confident that the jury would return a verdict of not 
guilty. ?I don?t believe race is an issue in this trial?I think I have a 
fair and impartial jury??

The jury deliberated for less than three hours and found Mychal Bell 
guilty on the maximum possible charges of aggravated second degree 
battery and conspiracy. He faces up to a maximum of 22 years in prison.

The public defender told the press afterwards, ?I feel I put on the best 
defense that I could.? Responding to criticism of not putting on any 
witnesses, the attorney said ?why open the door for further accusations? 
I did the best I could for my client, Mychal Bell.?

At a rally in front of the courthouse the next day, Alan Bean, a Texas 
minister and leader of the Friends of Justice, said ?I have seen a lot 
of trials in my time. And I have never seen a more distressing 
miscarriage of justice than what happened in LaSalle Parish yesterday.? 
Khadijah Rashad of Lafayette Louisiana described the trial as a ?modern 
day lynching.?

Tory Pegram with the Louisiana ACLU has been working with the parents 
for months. ?People know if they don?t demand equal treatment now, they 
will never get it. People?s jobs and livelihoods have been threatened 
for attending Jena 6 Defense meetings, but people are willing to risk 
that. One person told me: ?We have to convince more people to come rally 
with us?..What?s the worst that could happen? They fire us from our 
jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on 
our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. 
We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn?t happen to us again, 
or our children will never be safe.??

Whites in the community were adamant that there is no racism. ?We don?t 
have a problem,? according to one. Other locals told the media ?We all 
get along,? and ?most blacks are happy with the way things are.? One 
person even said ?We don?t have many problems with our blacks.?

Melvin Worthington, the lone African American school board member in 
LaSalle Parish said it all could have been avoided. ?There?s no doubt 
about it,? he told the Chicago Tribune, ?whites and blacks are treated 
differently here. The white kids should have gotten more punishment for 
hanging those nooses. If they had, all the stuff that followed could 
have been avoided.?

Hebert McCoy, a relative of one of the youths who has been trying to 
raise money for bail and lawyers, challenged people everywhere at the 
end of the rally when he said ?You better get out of your houses. You 
better come out and defend your children?because they are incarcerating 
them by the thousands. Jena?s not the beginning, but Jena has crossed 
the line. Justice is not right when you put on the wrong charges and 
then convict. I believe in justice. I believe in the point of law. I 
believe in accepting the punishment if I?m guilty. If I?m guilty, 
convict me and punishment, but if I?m innocent, no justice?? and the 
crowd joined with him and shouted ?no peace!?

What happened to the white guys? The white victim of the beating was 
later arrested for bringing a hunting rifle loaded with 13 bullets onto 
the high school campus and released on $5000 bond. The white man who 
beat up the black youth at the off-campus party was arrested and charged 
with simple battery. The white students who hung up the nooses in the 
?white tree? were never charged.

The people in Jena are fighting for justice and they need legal and 
financial help. Since the arrests, a group of family members have been 
holding well-attended meetings, and have created a defense fund - the 
Jena 6 Defense Committee. They have received support from the NAACP, the 
Louisiana ACLU and Friends of Justice. People interested in supporting 
can contact: the Jena 6 Defense Committee, PO Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342 
jena6defense at gmail.com; Friends of Justice, 507 North Donley Avenue, 
Tulia, TX 79088 www.fojtulia.org; or the ACLU of Louisiana, PO Box 
56157, New Orleans, LA 70156 www.laaclu.org or 417.350.0536.

What is next? The rest of the Jena 6 await similar trials. Theodore Shaw 
is due to go on trial shortly. Mychal Bell is scheduled to be sentenced 
July 31. If he gets the maximum sentence he will not be out of prison 
until he is nearly 40. Meanwhile, the ?white tree? outside Jena High 
sits quietly in the hot sun.

Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New 
Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley at loyno.edu Audrey Stewart 
contributed to this article.