Whites Only

UPDATED

Rick Perlstein notes with appropriate disgust the racially-tinged case against six black teenagers in Jena, Louisiana.

I supposed this is part of our ongoing "yes, you read that headline correctly" series here at the Big Con. Read ongoing coverage here.

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree....

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena's black population didn't take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen."

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles....

A while ago I invited my readers to send their favorite exposés of The Big Con from this blog to their conservative friends and relatives - a failed experiment. None of us are talking politics any more with our conservative friends and relatives. Please file this one away nonetheless. The "racism isn't a problem any more" trope is a perennial in America. Next time you hear it, send them the news from Jena, Louisiana.

As I noted at Rick's blog, he doesn't even know the half of it.

An all-white jury has been seated to hear this case.

An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the "Jena Six" — a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

"I'm sure I can get a fair trial," Blane Williams, defense lawyer for 17-year-old Mychale Bell said. "You can't tell me there aren't six people in this town who won't listen fairly and do the right thing. I think people have a tendency to do the right thing."

I hope Mr. Williams' optimism is justified, but I have my doubts. My experiences in small-town Louisiana, where I have spent much of my life, have taught me that it is unwise to overestimate the racial tolerance of some people, especially when those people are being asked to render judgment on black males accused of harming a white person.

UPDATE

Blane Williams' client, Mychal Bell, is convicted of a lesser charge than attempted murder.

Mychal Bell, 17, the first member to be tried of the "Jena Six" -- the name given to the six boys charged in a Dec. 4 fight at Jena High School -- was convicted today of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit the same. He faces as many as 30 years in prison when sentenced.

Following the announcement of the verdict, Bell's father, Marcus Jones, slammed open the doors to the courtroom and was tackled by law enforcement and escorted out of the courthouse. Bell's mother, Melissa Bell, was distraught and had to be supported on her way out of the courtroom.