The Battle
Against Racism in Jena, Louisiana
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After briefly
considering permanently removing this article from Authors Den due to
actions by some that would hurt the efforts of the local ministers in
Jena, Louisiana, to bring healing to our community, I have decided to
keep the article here and add this explanation: I believe that racism,
bigotry, and hatred exist in our community just as it does in
villages, towns, and cities all across the United States, North and
South. I reject the notion that our local law enforcement,
governmental, and educational institutions perpetuate these fruits of
wickedness. In fact, I believe those institutions in
David Duke once received over sixty percent of the vote in a statewide
election in LaSalle Parish. For whatever reason, there are a couple of
schools here that were never integrated. There are no longer any
tracks- the railroads having long abandoned what was once a sawmill
paradise- to separate us in Jena, but most blacks live in their
“quarters” while most whites live in theirs. I’ve lived here most of
my life, and the one thing I can state with absolutely no fear of
contradiction is that LaSalle Parish is awash in racism: True
racism. Not the sort of affirmative
action/name-calling/reparations-seeking fluff that keeps Jesse Jackson
and liberal do-gooders in business, but a systematic culture of
bigotry, neglected by the scrutiny of time.
Here in the piney woods of central Louisiana, where some gentle, old,
Christian, white women still call graying black men “boy” and some
angry, young, Christian, black teens attack pizza delivery trucks that
would dare enter their neighborhood. Racism and bigotry are such a
part of life that most of the citizens do not even recognize it. Cross
Highway 127 just south of All that may be suddenly
changing. Through a series of events including white boys hanging
a noose from a tree on school grounds, which infuriated some black
parents, racial fights in various locations in town, the gutting of
Jena High School by an unknown arsonist, and culminating with the
arrest of several black boys for attacking a white boy
and beating him mercilessly at the high school, the ministers of
Jena decided it was time to do something. A meeting was hastily
called. White and black ministers met to discuss the problems facing
our youth and to turn to the only One with the power to stop the
hatred swirling around us. The ministers joined together to publish a
statement in our local paper a walk-through
prayer meeting was held at all the local schools on Sunday evening;
the following Wednesday night, all the churches, black and white,
closed so that everyone could meet at the Jena High School football
stadium to pull together for our community to fight the real enemy of
our souls. The local radio station broadcast the service live for
those who could not attend in person.
What an amazing sight it was! There was the United Pentecostal
preacher standing with the Baptist pastor, seeking the hand of God for
our children. There was the black minister lifting his voice with the
white minister to sing praises to our King. The principal of
Change comes in small steps.
Time will tell if we have made any substantive progress. Perhaps,
because we’ve waited so long to take up our weapons against racism
here in |