The Academic Advancement Program has invited Alice Woodward and Hank Brown, who have been in Jena, La., for the past six months reporting for the newspaper Revolution, to speak about their experiences tonight.
Problems in Jena began in December 2006 when three nooses were hung from a tree in what some residents saw as a traditionally white hangout spot at a local high school. The situation escalated after a school fight, in which the “Jena Six,” six black students involved in the fight, were arrested.
“The program will bring to life the Jena Six and the truth about the nooses and the Southern way of life and how six kids are being charged with really serious crimes for doing the right thing,” said Kate Johnson, an administrative analyst working with AAP to bring the speakers to UCLA.
Brown said he and Woodward will examine how what they see as the national oppression of blacks has its roots in slavery and how it is centered in communities such as Jena today.
The 385 blacks who live in Jena are segregated in an area called “Ward 10,” and the local high school where the violence occurred is also informally segregated, according to Woodward’s article, “White Supremacy and the Jena 6,” which she wrote in July 2007 for Counterpunch, a political newsletter.
Both Woodward and Brown said they identify as Revolutionary Communists, and believe that the problems in today’s society stem from capitalism. Brown said that Revolutionary Communists try to break down the barriers that are created by social, racial and gender inequality and to form a society where exploitation no longer exists.
“It will be an interesting evening for people to come and check it out, especially from the Revolutionary Communist perspective. We have a lot of insight, both being communist and being down in Jena for six months,” Brown said.
Growing up in Birmingham, Ala., Brown was involved with the Civil Rights Movement and the black liberation movement for many years. After reading an article Woodward wrote for Revolution on the Jena Six, he decided to help report on the issue.
“It was both a wonderful experience in the sense that we got to meet a lot of residents in Jena ““ black and white ““ and we were both able to dig into the untold stories that we, as learners, weren’t able to get into. Some of them we’re going to tell at the program on Thursday,” he said.
Brown said he and Woodward do not believe the Jena Six did anything wrong, but rather that they are victims of blatant racism and national pressure.
The first of the accused students to go on trial, Mychal Bell, 17, was sentenced to 18 months in prison last December after he pleaded guilty in juvenile court. The remaining five students have yet to go on trial.
Ben Moore, a second-year political science student, said he might like to attend the event in order to find out what took place. “It would interest me to learn more about it and to see the perspectives from different people involved. I’d like an insider’s perspective instead of the media perspective,” he said.
Brown said he hopes that people will come to the event to get a fresh look at the issue, as the topic is both interesting and appropriate for Black History Month.