Who is Jason Vassell, and will his case become the Jena Six case of 2009?

Ekwueme Michael Thelwell is a professor in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Afro-American Studies department. When he was much younger, he worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee recruiting volunteers for the organization’s Freedom Summer in 1964 and with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Thelwell also edited “Ready For Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture.”

So it should be no surprise that Thelwell was a panelist at the symposium on black power that the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture sponsored the last two days of March. But the good professor didn’t just talk about black power or the good ol’ days/bad ol’ days when he was a SNCC activist. At the conclusion of his remarks, he urged members of the audience to come up and grab some Xeroxed copies of two stories about Vassell, who until last year was a UMass pre-med student.

Vassell is a black man, the 24-year-old son of Jamaican immigrants. In February of 2008, he was in his UMass dorm room when two inebriated fools knocked on his window and asked for directions.

Since you’ve probably already guessed where this tale is headed, and that it’s headed south, then you’ve probably guessed the race of the two men: Yeah, they’re white guys.

A quarrel erupted between Vassell and the two men. One of them used the N-word during the heated exchange. According to an Associated Press story in late March of this year, here’s the Cliff Notes version of what happened.

“One of the white men hurled racial slurs at Vassell before both took off. Vassell then put a black cloth over his face, armed himself with a clothes iron and a folding knife and left his room. Surveillance cameras later show Vassell stabbing both men in the dorm lobby. A year later, Vassell awaits trial on two counts of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon ... ”

Read that account, and you’d be justified in concluding that Vassell is a loose cannon who overreacted to the situation. But Thelwell can write accounts of his own. Here’s his version of what happened, one of the two stories he handed out to attendees of the black power symposium.

“(The men) became loud and abusive (and) threatened Vassell with violence and uttered racial insults in vulgar language. They then smashed the window. Vassell, visibly upset, went into the foyer to admit a friend from a nearby dorm. When he opened the outside door, the two men entered the vestibule and attacked him. The first blow broke his nose and caused a concussion from which he would later lose consciousness twice. In the brief, violent scuffle that ensued, Vassell fended off the two attackers with a small knife before escaping back behind a second door. Although bleeding, the two men continued to pound and kick the door while shouting for Vassell to come out and finish the fight. The fight was captured on dormitory security video. At no point did Jason ever leave the dormitory. Nor did he initiate the violence.”

Thelwell added that even though prosecutors have already stipulated to his version of the facts in open court, “later that day, on the instruction of the district attorney, Vassell was arrested on two charges of intent to murder, later reduced to aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. These are felonies with maximum penalties of 15 years each.”

Vassell had no criminal record before the incident. One of the white men, John Bowes, was convicted of misdemeanor disorderly conduct after the fracas. The .....

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