Jena Six: “Shot heard ‘round the world”

Watching the Jena rally broadcast on television and described on the radio raised much to compare and contrast with social action protests of the past. The coverage seemed a strange hybrid of a party atmosphere—celebrating the presence of R&B groups--and the more sobering and focused purpose of social protest against institutional injustice in the American legal system. What also caught my attention was that repeatedly commentators remarked how the great outpouring of support for the so-called "Jena Six"—at least 50,000 people attended the rally—all began last fall at the beginning of the 2006 school year around a question about who could sit under a shade tree.

Many persons interviewed on radio and television said that this outpouring of support from across America—from whites and blacks--was not just a one day event. It marked the beginning of a movement, something of a revolution. If this is true then the Black student who asked the Jena high school principal if there was any reason that he could not sit under a shade tree "reserved" for white students essentially issued the equivalent of the "shot heard 'round the world" in this 21st century. The "shot heard 'round the world" (Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Concord Hymn”) refers to the initial shot fired in the battle that ignited the American Revolution. The premise of the student’s question shook the core of Black America. The fact that our children are still denied such basic human rights, that they are still instructed in a system of social inferiority, rightly exploded complacency and ignited a call to action in many Black Americans. Nearly one year later, the world saw Americans of all backgrounds rise up to reject this despicable social residual of this nation’s segregated past.

After hearing from the principal that he could sit anywhere on school grounds, Kenneth Purvis and his friends stood under the shade tree. White students responded by hanging three nooses from the tree. Kenneth Purvis said in an interview that after seeing the nooses, he and others went back to stand under the tree again.

These students acted in the spirit of resistance which is Black America's legacy and responsibility, from early enslavement through the Sixties and beyond. Resistance is a core value of Black American culture. "Resist, resist, resist," sang veteran social revolutionist poet Sonia Sanchez to an audience in New Haven just a few months ago.

Entrenched segregation in Jena shocked Black America but did not faze white Jena residents. The white adults of Jena who say that their town is not racist should be alarmed however that their children are. (How far does the "white" shade tree grow from its root?) At least three white Jena youth not only harbor racist attitudes, but situated themselves in the appalling historical context of American racial bigotry by hanging three nooses, thus invoking the heinous reign of terror whites levied against black men. (See 100 Years of Lynching by Ralph Ginsburg)

The white students’ actions represent an attempt to threaten and intimidate based on racial supremacy, essentially an imbalance in power.

Taking a stand by sitting under the tree was the bravest and most affirming action those young people could take. They acted in the affirming tradition of forbearers such as Dred Scott, Rosa Parks and many others whose resistance contributed to dismantling legalized segregation and discrimination in America.

They challenged institutional racist attitudes, previously sanctioned by the school administration and exercised by their peers. Resistance was an imperative not only for their present school days but also for their future. What would be their prospects to obtain social equality in Jena five or ten years after high school, when a white Jena graduate would then be a supervisor in a position to hire them? The roles of segregation, submission and inferiority established in high school will carry over implicitly, if not explicitly, into work situations and all aspects of social order.

To allow this Jim Crow situation to dominate the small patch of ground in front of the high school is to sanction Jim Crow across the land. As Dr. King said again and again, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

There is much more to examine and build upon based on the sincere response of more than 50,000 black Americans, and Americans of all races, who came to Jena to protest injustice, to support the cause. There is much to be proud of in the youth who led the way.

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