What Really Happened in Jena
By Jared Taylor
Everyone in America has now heard of Jena, Louisiana, and its alleged racial abominations. Its crimes are said to be so great that on Sept. 20, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton had to lead a massive “civil rights” march through the sleepy town of 3,000 to drag it into the modern era. Young blacks from all over the country took part, many comparing the demonstration to events in Selma or Birmingham half a century ago.
It takes some digging to find out what actually happened in Jena, but we are not witnessing a return to Jim Crow. Although blacks have treated LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters like a reincarnation of Bull Connor, the more closely his actions are examined the more reasonable they seem. These events have become a rallying cry for “civil rights” for only one reason: The national media have shamelessly warped them to fit the pattern of unregenerate Southern bigotry. Here is what actually happened.
The Nooses
On August 30, 2006, there was a back-to-school assembly for boys only at Jena High School. An assistant principal covered rules, dress codes, etc., and called for questions. One black asked a question that was clearly a joke: Could blacks sit with whites under a particular shade tree in the school’s courtyard. Everyone in the room laughed. The assistant principal answered that, of course, anyone could sit wherever he liked. There were a number of other questions—some funny, some serious—and the assembly broke up in good spirits.
National commentators have assumed whites had been keeping blacks away from the tree, but no one in Jena says this. There are places where whites often sit and places where blacks often sit, but there are no rigidly enforced boundaries. The question would not have gotten a big laugh if there had been tension about who could sit under the tree.
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