50 Years Since Little Rock Integration
September 24, 2007
ANDREW DeMILLO , Associated Press
Fifty years after federal troops escorted Terrence Roberts and eight fellow black students into an all-white high school, he says the struggles over race and segregation still are unresolved.
“This country has demonstrated over time that it is not prepared to operate as an integrated society,” said Roberts, who is a faculty member at Antioch University’s psychology program.
He and the other students known as the Little Rock Nine will help the city observe Central High School’s 50th anniversary this week with a series of events culminating with a ceremony featuring former President Bill Clinton.
Injustice is bigger than Jena 6
September 24, 2007
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune
We black Americans seem to need a major event or outrage every so often that revives our mass energies in ways that remind of us the 1960s civil rights movement. In the 1980s we had mass arrests at the South African Embassy to protest apartheid. In the 1990s there was the Million Man March to redeem black fatherhood and proper role modeling. In 2007 we have the “Jena 6.”
Thousands flowed by the busload into tiny Jena, La., last week. They came to march on behalf of six black youths who were originally charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating up a white youth in what many describe as a schoolyard fight in December at the local high school.
Fla. Democrats Set to Stick to Jan. 29 Vote
September 23, 2007
Brendan Farrington,Associated Press
The Florida Democratic Party will stick with a Jan. 29 presidential primary even if it means losing all its nominating convention delegates, a party source said Saturday.
The Democratic National Committee voted last month to strip Florida of its 210 delegates if the state party held a primary before Feb. 5, but it gave state officials until next Saturday to come up with an alternative delegate selection plan, such as caucuses or a vote-by-mail primary, to stay within DNC rules.
Bloggers a Force Behind Jena Protests
September 23, 2007
Eric Weiner, NPR
For months, the story of the so-called “Jena Six” unfolded largely out of sight of the mainstream media. But in the emerging “Afro-Sphere,” as some call the loose network of black bloggers, the story of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate passed from blog to blog, taking on a life of its own. Petitions were signed, money was raised and protests were organized — all online.
“I think a lot of people ignored the story but the African-American blogosphere has been on it from early on, and it has really caught steam recently,” said Shawn Williams, who writes the popular Dallas South blog.
Protesters Stand Up For Jena 6 and More
September 20, 2007
Tracie Powell, Diverse Issues in Higher Education
A Black West Virginia woman was sexually assaulted, stabbed and tortured, with one of her White abductors telling her, “That’s what we do to niggers around here.” Hate crime charges are yet to be filed in the case because the penalty isn’t as stringent as state-level kidnapping, assault and rape charges.
Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teen, was convicted of rape and received 10 years in prison for having consensual sex with another teen. The state law was later changed to make the crime a misdemeanor and a federal judge ordered Wilson freed, but the now 21-year-old remains in prison today.
Six Black teens in Jena, La., were arrested and charged with attempted murder for what amounted to a school-yard fight that resulted from months of racial tension that built up after Black students sat under a “Whites-only” tree at the town’s high school. Most of the charges have been reduced, but the teens still face years behind bars if convicted.
This isn’t the 1950s, these events all happened in the past year.
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