Journey to Jena - Part 3

After spending a few hours at the high school, I went back to the courthouse and there were still tons of people there.  It was obvious that the main part of the program was over because the speakers were using megaphones, not microphones.  The speakers were from the Black Panther Party.  I listened to them for about 5 minutes and quickly figured out that they didn’t totally represent my thoughts.  It was about 4PM by that time.  They were cursing, saying that the police officers (surrounding the stage) had blood on their hands, and passed the megaphone to angry members of the crowd.  While I felt their pain and struggle, I didn’t agree with their method of spreading their message.  In the middle of one of their speeches, the rapper, Mos Def, showed up.  They escorted him straight to the megaphone and he mentioned that what was going on in Jena was not just a black issue, but rather a human issue.  I totally agree with Mos Def.  After he spoke, one of the Black Panther Party leaders arrived.  As he made his way to the stage, he pushed folks out of his way.  He slightly bumped me, realized that he was going the wrong way, then made his way to the stage though an alternative route.  The police wouldn’t let him get to the stage, so his people just passed the megaphone to him while in the crowd.  I won’t repeat what he said because he cursed a lot.  Later on, at the March on Washington (Nov 15, 2007), I saw that same guy (Malik Shabazz)…who turned out to be the lawyer for Megan Williams, the sistah who was tortured and raped in West Virginia.  While he was speaking, I accomplished more interviews.  I remember speaking to an older lady about current issues facing our black communities.  She gave me some historical information that intrigued me, so I pulled out the voice recorder.  Once I did that, she shut down and ended the conversation.  I was taken aback by her reaction, so I put away the voice recorder.  When we finished speaking, I then understood why she didn’t want her words recorded.  Throughout our conversation, I was informed by another interviewee that she was also in the Black Panther Party, and while speaking with her, other members of the party were staring at her and me.  When their leader finished speaking on the megaphone, they all lined up in a single file, performed some facing movements, and marched out of there.  Based on what I saw from them that day, they appeared to have been there to recruit.

Overall it was a wonderfully enlightening day.  I met many types of people.  I would have loved to have met more people from Jena, but much of the town was gone.  Those Jena natives that stayed behind just stared at us from their windows or from a distance too far for interaction.  I left Jena a little more encouraged about our desire to do act on our behalf and not allow ourselves to be underestimated, undervalued, and marginalized.