A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

Listen to me sisters, I have a message for you.

Listen to me brothers, it's for you too.

It's a lesson you won't learn in any college.

The babies are crying on the streets of our land.

The people are dying, some by their own hand.

And they're dying for a lack of knowledge.

See that ol' lady pushing the shopping cart.

The look on her face will break your heart.

That's a lesson she didn't learn in any college.

And, look at that young man lying in the do 'way

Dreaming 'bout Burger King, have it yo' way.

He's dying for a lack of knowledge.

Our leaders say, "Cut out the aid and welfare,

We got ours and we don't want to share."

That's a lesson they didn't learn in any college.

Mothers selling their babies for a bag of dope,

"But, we must follow tradition," says the Pope.

We're dying for a lack of knowledge.

Jesus came to fulfill the law, not tradition.

He shed his blood and gave us a mission.

That's lesson you don't learn in any college.

He came to save us, to set the captives free,

To make the world a better place for you and me.

But, we're dying for a lack of knowledge.

Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for,

The evidence of things unseen,

Faith and hope give the ol folks visions

And make the young folks dream

That's a lesson you don't learn in any college.

Four hundred years of pain and oppression,

Make us lose the vision and forget the dreams

Four hundred years of pain and oppression,

Make us want our freedom by ANY means.

So, we won't die for a lack of knowledge.

God gave us talents to each our own measure

These God-given gifts are ours to treasure.

That's a lesson you don't learn in any college.

Stirring up these god-given gifts within

Make our bodies and souls begin to mend.

And, we'll desire to learn and seek the knowledge.

To raise up our people from bondage and chains

To stop the violence and use our brains.

Another lesson we don't learn in any college.

Whether we call God by one name or another,

Allah, Yahweh or the Divine Mother,

We know God is the source of all knowledge.

So, let's feed our people not only bread and meat,

But, uplift the wounded hearts and souls in the street,

Teach them everything they couldn't learn in college.

Teach the children to love and respect each other,

To love and respect their father and their mother,

That's the start of our quest for knowledge.

Now, we're not saying that you shouldn't go to any schools,

'Cause that's the way to get your learning tools.

A lesson you don't learn in any college.

But learning to apply these tools is the key.

The Bible opens up the door, unlocks the mystery.

So, we can grow in strength and knowledge.

For love is God and God is love,

And our blessings flow from up above.

Did anybody teach you that in college?

God made us all to be happy and free,

To live our lives abundantly,

And not to die for a lack of knowledge.

The Secret

Free The Jena 6!

Since the publication of the document below this past summer, there have been additional instances of negative white supremacist activity.  A noose was found in a Michigan University.  Hate groups are increasing rapidly.  Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other militants are proliferating.  The Internet is spreading their "gospel" of hate, prejudice, bigotry and malice even faster than before.

On a late summer day in 2006, in Jena, Louisiana, a Black high school student asked permission to sit beneath the “white tree” in front of the town’s high school.  It was an unspoken law that this shady area was for whites only during school breaks. But a student asked, and the vice principal said, "Nothing is stopping you."  So Black students sat underneath the tree, challenging the established authority of segregation and racism.  The next day, hanging from the tree, were three ropes, in school colors, each tied to make a noose.

The events set in motion by those nooses led to a schoolyard fight.  And that fight led to the conviction, on June 28, 2007, of a Black student at Jena High School for charges that can bring up to 22 years in prison.  Mychal Bell, a 16-year-old sophomore football star at the time he was arrested, was convicted by an all-white jury, without a single witness being called on his behalf. And five more Black students in Jena still face serious charges stemming from the fight.

In response to the incident, several Black students, among them star players on the football team, staged a sit-in under the tree. The principal reacted by bringing in the white district attorney, Reed Walters, and 10 local police officers to an all-school assembly.  Marcus Jones, Mychal Bell’s father, described the assembly to Revolution:

“Now remember, with everything that goes on at JenaHigh School, everybody’s separated.  The only time when Black and white kids are together is in the classroom and when they playing sports together.  During lunch time, Blacks sit on one side, whites sit on the other side of the cafeteria.  During canteen time, Blacks sit on one side of the campus, whites sit on the other side of the campus.

“At any activity done in the auditorium—anything—Blacks sit on one side, whites on the other side, okay?  The DA tells the principal to call the students in the auditorium.  They get in there. The DA tells the Black students, he’s looking directly at the Black students– remember, whites on one side, Blacks on the other side—he’s looking directly at the Black students.  He told them to keep their mouths shut about the boys hanging their nooses up.  If he hears anything else about it, he can make their lives go away with the stroke of a pen.”

In November, as football season came to a close, the main school building was mysteriously burned  to the ground.  The traumatic event seemed to bring to the surface the boiling racial tensions in Jena. On a Friday night, Robert Bailey, a 17-year-old Black student and football player, was invited to a dance at a hall considered to be “white.” When he walked in, without warning, he was punched in the face, knocked to the ground and attacked by a group of white youths. Only one of the white youths was arrested—he was ultimately given probation and asked to apologize.

The night after that, the 22-year-old white man, along with two friends, pulled a gun on Bailey and two of his friends at a local gas station.  The black youths wrestled the gun from him to prevent him from using it on them.  They were arrested and charged with theft, and the white man went free.

The following Monday students returned to school..  In the midst of a confrontation between a white student, Justin Barker, and Robert Bailey, the Black student who had been beaten up that weekend, a playground brawl in which  Barker was allegedly knocked down, punched, and kicked by a number of Black students was started.  Barker was taken to the hospital for a few hours and was seen out socializing later that evening.  However, the six Black students: Robert Bailey Jr.; Theo Shaw; Carwin Jones; Bryant Purvis; Mychal Bell; and a still unidentified minor, allegedly the attackers of Justin Barker, were arrested, charged with attempted second degree manslaughter, and expelled from school. 

White Supremacy Then and Now

This did not all happen in the “Red Summer” of 1919 when Jim Crow segregation thrived, and Blacks in major cities faced race riots that raged throughout the country.  This did not occur in the 1950s after Brown vs. Board of Education was decided in 1954 and young children faced angry white mobs to make history in desegregating public schools.  This did not happen in the summer of 1955 when, in Money, Mississippi, a vibrant Black youth by the name of Emmett Till was brutally murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman.  This did not occur in 1960, when on February 1st, four Black college students sat in at a “white only” lunch counter demanding service and launching the civil rights movement to another level.  This did not happen during the period 1865 to 1965 in which 3,446 Black people were lynched in the United States.

This is now.  When three white students in Jena committed this hate crime, hanging three nooses from the “white tree,” they evoked the ugly history of slavery, segregation, lynching, and police brutality for the purpose of threatening the lives of Black students at their school.  The “white tree” stands in Jena, Louisiana.  The Jena 6, as the Black students have come to be called, are in prison and on trial for defending themselves against white supremacist attacks.

The Jena 6 were arrested in December 2006.  The outrageously high bail ranged from $70,000-138,000, leaving most of them stuck in jail for months.

The first student to go to trial this June was Mychal Bell, who waited behind bars, unable to post bail.  Like a scene from the Jim Crow South, he was judged by an all-white jury, in a courtroom run by a white judge.  Whites sat with Justin Barker and his white lawyer on one side.  Blacks sat with defendant Mychal Bell, who was represented by a court-appointed attorney.

The prosecutor called 16 witnesses, mostly white students.  The court-appointed defense attorney called none.  Accounts of the incident, who was involved, and who did what, vary highly, including whether Mychal Bell was the one who first punched Justin Barker.  Barker’s attorney argued that Bell’s tennis shoes on his feet were a “dangerous weapon.”  The trial was so outrageous that when a Louisiana TV station polled viewers, 62% said that Mychal Bell was not getting a fair trial.

Mychal Bell was convicted of two felonies:  aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated second-degree battery.  He faces up to 22 years in prison.  The remaining five defendants await their trials.

Standing Up to Racism

Few people in the United States have heard of the case of the Jena 6.  But the trial was covered by the French newspaper Le Monde, and the BBC aired a documentary on the case.  The London Observer reported on the Jena 6 story.  The “white tree” stands in Jena, Louisiana today while entire neighborhoods and precious lives in the 9^th ward of New Orleans are left wasting away, even as the more profitable and less Black areas of the city are rebuilt.  It stands while a father, a mother, a fiancée, a child, and many friends are still feeling the devastating loss of Sean Bell who was murdered by the NYPD.  It stands while the RutgersUniversity basketball team gets subjected to racist and sexist verbal assault from a national talk show host.  While the N word is spouted with rage by a comedian.  In a world such as this, there’s nothing left to do but pull this tree up by its roots and get rid of it for good.

THESE ARE THE ACTIONS YOU NEED TO TAKE NOW!!!

If you would like to personally contribute to helping these young men then you can contact the Jena Six Defense Committee,

http://www.naacp.org/get-involved/activism/petitions/jena-6/index.php

Donate online to the:    Jena 6 Defense Fund  https://secure.colorofchange.org/jena_fund/

 OR mail donations to: Jena 6 Defense Committee, P. O. Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342

Donate to the NAACP:   https://www.naacp.org/contribute/contribute.php

Make a Phone Call:     Below please find contact information for the Louisiana Governor and the Louisiana State Attorney General.

The Honorable Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
Governor of the Great State of Louisiana
Office of the Governor
Attn: Constituent Services
P.O. Box 94004
Baton Rouge , LA70804-90004
Phone: (225) 342-0991
Fax: (225) 342-7099
contact@la.gov

Charles C. Foti, Jr., Attorney General
1885 North 3rd Street
P.O. Box 94005
Baton Rouge , LA 70804
Phone: (225) 326-6705
Fax: (225) 342-8703
Executive@ag.state.la.us

SEND A LETTER TO THE LOUISIANA GOVERNOR AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
 

http://www.naacp.org/pdfs/SampleJena6SupportLetter.pdf  (sample letter)

SPREAD THE WORD!

Many people do not even know about the Jena 6 tragedy.  Not to mention the fact that events such as this are occurring across the country daily!

Host an event, forum, town hall meeting, pass out flyers, whatever…just make sure that the people in your community and on your campus understand that racism and injustice is ALIVE. 

If we don’t fight for the Jena 6 and fight to end racism in this country, who will?

If you have any questions, call Angela Ciccolo or Stefanie Brown at the National Headquarters of the NAACP at (410) 580-5777.

Click the link below to be reacquainted with the chaos that spurred the civil rights movement of the 60s.  Some of you were not born yet.  Some of you were too young to realize what was going on.  But let me tell you.  It is still going on.   We are NOT free yet! 

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