Minority & Small Business Week
Page A4
September 26, 2007
O pinion
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
Stopping Injustice in its Tracks
by
J udge G reg M athis
L ast T hursday, thousands o f
black A m ericans gathered in the
sm all town o f Jena, Louisiana to
support the teenagers who have
com e to be known as the Jena 6.
The scene was rem iniscent o f a
1960s freedom m arch and many o f
those old-school leaders, includ
ing Reverends Jesse Jackson and
A1 Sharpton. But there were also
som e new faces. Young faces. All
excited to play a part in making sure
injustice is stopped in its tracks.
The Jena6 may have unwittingly
sparked the next big youth m ove
ment in the African-American com
munity. And it's about time. We
have been waiting for more o f our
young people to get active.
The Jena 6 are a group of black
teenagers who have been arrested
and charged with crimes related to
their alleged involvement in the as
sault - many say it no more than a
high school fight - o f a white teen
ager in December o f last year. The
K
- x
dents only received three days o f in
school suspension.
The six are accused of beating
and knocking a white teen uncon
scious. The teen was treated at the
hospital and later that evening at-
The Jetta 6 may have
unwittingly sparked the next big
■ youth movement in the African-
American community. And it's
fight w as one o f many racially
charged events that occurred in the
town after white students hung three
nooses from a tree on the Jena High
School campus. Those white stu-
tended an event at the high school.
Five o f the students involved in the
alleged attack - Robert Bailey, Jr.,
Mychal Bell, Carwin Jones, Bryant
Purvis, and Theo S h a w -a llo f whom
were 1 7 - adults under Louisiana law not have been tried as an adult.
- were initially charged with assault. T hough charges stand against the
Jesse Ray Beard was 14 at the time others, they have also been re
and was charged as a juvenile. The duced.
If not for the intense and consis
district attorney later increased the
assault charges to attem pted sec tent public outcry against the biased
ond degree murder. Many o f the treatment these six young people
tow n's black residents, and many were receiving, Mychal Bell may have
across America, believed the in received a sentence of up to 20 years
creased charges were di spropor- on Sept. 20. Instead, our people -
tionate to the crim e and were young and old - traveled to Jena and
put the town on notice: black Ameri
racially motivated.
In June, on the first day o f can youth will stand up and fight for
M ychal B ell’s trial, the district justice.
There are many reasons why our
attorney reduced the charges.
D espite conflicting w itness ac young people haven’t been as ac
counts on w hether or not he was tive or as conscious as they should
involved in the attack, Bell was have. Perhaps they believed no good
found guilty. O n Sept. 14, B ell’s would com e o f it. Conditions for
conviction was overturned w hen a many are the same today as they
Louisiana court decided he should were 40 years ago. Or, maybe they
thought the old-guard w ouldn’t ac
cept them. Many of our m ore estab
lished leaders have been reluctant to
pass the torch. W hatever the rea
sons, the dem onstration in Jena
shows us that a new day is dawning.
Young black people played a key
role in promoting the march and rally
on social networking sites such as
Facebook and MySpace. They sent
emails and text messages to their
friends, clueing them in on every
development in the case. Their orga
nizing style may not look that o f
years past, but it is real and it is
effective. L et’s hope it continues.
Judge Greg M athis is national
vice president o f Rainbow PU SH
and a national board m em ber o f the
S o u th ern C h ristia n L ea d ersh ip
Conference.
Wrong Turn on Equality
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Supreme Court
erodes gains
by
M arian W right E delman
The July 28th Supreme
C ourt decision to strike
dow n voluntary school
integration plans in L ou
isville and Seattle, will
erode gains in racial equal
ity won through landm ark
court cases and the struggle by A m eri
cans o f all races in the C ivil Rights
M ovem ent.
The action by the conservative five-
justice majority assaults both the spirit
and intent o f the W arren Court's 1954
Brown v. Board o f Education desegrega
tion ruling, w hich had a dom ino effect o f
undoing legally sanctioned racial apart
heid in all aspects o f A merican life.
A lthough low er courts had upheld
both L ouisville's and Seattle's volun
tary plans, w hich achieved
diversity using race as one of
the criteria for school p lace
ment, the H igh C ourt ruled
both plans unconstitutional.
C hief Justice John Roberts,
jo in e d by Ju stices S calia,
T h o m a s a n d A lito , sa id
boards o f education cannot
take the race o f an individual
student into account to help
foster racial integration o f schools.
W riting for the m ajority, Roberts stated,
"To achieve a system o f determ ining
adm ission to public schools on a non-
racial basis is to stop assigning stu
dents on a racial basis."
T he practical im plication o f Robert's
reasoning is that if A m ericans w ere
only "colorblind" in im plem enting so
cial, econom ic and political policies, the
problem o f racial bias w ould go away.
T his is naive at best.
A s a society, we are not at the point
w here we can rely on individuals to
m ake colorblind decisions on a range of
matters.
Justice Stephen B reyer w as right in
his dissent to call this ruling a radical
step aw ay from settled law. W riting on
b eh alf o f him self and Justices Stevens,
S outer and G insburg, Justice Breyer
asserted that race-conscious consider
ations can be valuable tools in "eradi
cating earlier school segregation, bring
ing about integration o r preventing ret
ro gression."
T he Court's ruling will now throw
many school districts and local com m u
nities into confusion, stripping m any o f
the tools used for decades to im plem ent
voluntary antidiscrim ination m easures.
It also will open the door to re-litigation
o f other established integration plans.
T he legacy o f 250 years o f slavery
and a century o f segregation laws
are still w ith us. W e sim ply have not
com e far enough that we can dis
pense w ith any rem edies to end
discrim ination.
In A m erica, where nearly all o f us
are descended from people who
cam e to these shores from other lands,
many in desperation and many in chains,
laws that protect m inorities are as vital
as our founding principles, how ever
poorly honored in practice.
Racial, ethnic and cultural diversity
are essential elem ents o f our national
character as is the equal protection o f
the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth
A m endm ent-a m ore solid bedrock o f
A m erica's quest for ju stice for all.
T he idea that w e no longer have to
~ As a society, we are not
at the point where we can
rely on individuals to
make colorblind decisions
on a range o f matters.
Voting Rights Denied
D.C. residents deserve representation
N ational Urban League Presi
dent M arc H. M orial issued the
fo llow ing statem ent after the U. S.
Senate last week fa ile d to stop a
filib u ste r o f the proposed D.C.
H ouse Voting Rights Act:
By a slim three-vote m argin,
the Senate failed to overcom e a
filibuster by a m inority o f sena
tors (including Sen. Gordon Smith-R-Ore.),
that kept the measure from proceeding to a
vote on the floor, a m ajor setback in a
decades-long fight to secure congressional
representation for the nation's capital.
This was the first filibuster o f a
voting rights bill since the era o f
segregation.
D istrict o f C olum bia residents
pay taxes, serve on ju ries and fight
and die in our nation's wars. Yet,
despite this, they have had their
hopes o f gaining congressional rep
resentation stalled so close to the
finish line.
Residents o f our nation's capital deserve
their constitutional right to representation
now, something that has been long enjoyed
by all Americans residing outside D.C. W ith
out a full voice in Congress, they are merely
second-class citizens.
Crafted as a com prom ise, the legislation
would add tw o seats in the U.S. H ouse - one
for D.C. and the other for U tah, the next
state expected to get a new seat. It enjoyed
support from both sides o f the aisle and
easily passed through the U.S. H ouse last
April.
It is sham eful that in this day and age, a
small g ro u p o f United States Senators would
filibuster a voting rights bill.
It is ironic and sad that D C residents,
once again, had their rights denied by a
body in w hich they are not represented.
I u rg e th e S e n a te to sto p b lo c k in g
A m e ric a n s ' r ig h t to v o te an d re v is it
th is issu e d u rin g th is s e ssio n o f C o n
g re ss. D .C . r e s id e n ts d e s e rv e v o tin g
rig h ts now !
Featuring
Breaking Down the Walls Tour
Featuring The Light, Rajime
Uprooted Gospel Show
503-652-8100
take affirm ative m easures to preserve
civil rights is no m ore valid than the idea
that we no longer have to take strong
m easures to uphold the First A m end
m ent or any o f our liberties.
T here have been num erous ch al
lenges to o u r rights o f free speech,
freedom o f assem bly, and freedom o f
the press over the last 200 years. Just as
those fundam ental, charter freedom s
require preservation, so do the protec
tions o f racial equality arising from the
Fourteenth A m endm ent, the Brow n
decision and the Civil Rights Acts.
I am appalled that C hief Justice Rob
erts suggested his ruling w as faithful to
the heritage o f Brown. Roberts got it
wrong. Brow n was crafted to elim inate
racial separation. The Roberts court
overturned school integration plans that
sought to achieve racial diversity in the
classroom . It is my hope that those w ho
now sit on the Suprem e C ourt will co m
mit them selves to advancing justice
and building bridges betw een those o f
different racial and incom e groups-not
burning those bridges.
M arian W right Edelm an is p re si
d en t o f the C hildren's D efense Fund.
^503-922-0006 (Uprooted
Black Americans For Life
and
Precious Children of Portland
On the Scene with Tickets and Giveaways
email dennish@kpdq.com
Interview with Loca, and
National Recording Artists
Invite all for 40 Days for Life
from September 26,h to November 4th
by
The UR Community Calendar
Prayer & Fasting
Vigil at MLK Blvd. and Beech St.
Community Outreach
Make a Difference and stop Planned Parenthood, the
nation’s largest abortion provider, from putting a
large three-story abortion facility at Beech & MLK.
Sponsored by: Bamboo Lifestyles / Portland Observer
www.mog7sodety.com
Please come to special vigil on
Wednesday, September 26th from 5:00pm till Dark
u jre e te i >
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