Commentary: 50 Years Ago, There Was the Racist Madness of the Little Rock Nine; Now There’s the Jena Six
Date: Monday, September 17, 2007
By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Next week, nine black people will draw a crowd in front of Little Rock Central High. The crowd will be hyped up and media from all over the country and various other points on the globe will be there to record the scene. Just like 50 years ago.
But next week’s will be a different crowd.
The one that showed up on the 25th of September in 1957 was angry, ignorant, rabid and racist. The Arkansas National Guard -- its state patch having been usurped by the federal banner -- and the 101st Airborne were at their posts to enforce the peace as nine black teenagers mounted the steps to “the most beautiful high school in America” and marched into history.
On Sept. 25, 2007, Central High’s expansive front lawn will be filled by dignitaries and soldiers of the civil rights movement. The pioneering students -- The Little Rock Nine, as they’ve been known for half a century -- will be there again, many of them grandparents and retirees, having had 50 years of good days, bad days and mediocre days.
They will return to Central for the landmark celebration because they wanted to and because they had to. They had to show the country that their story, which began as a pageant of paradoxes -- courage and trepidation, advances and setbacks, hosannas and threats -- had a happy ending after all. They had to show that because the country needs reminding ... again.
Yes, 50 years later, and down the road apiece, as the old folks used to say, familiar trouble brews and bubbles. Race trouble. Dual existences. The Haves and The Denied at it again.
Back then, it was Little Rock. The name now is Jena. It is in that small, mostly rural Louisiana town that racism has rallied afresh. One thing is for sure: It hasn’t changed much in 50 years. It is as hideous, crude and stubborn as ever, stepping out in public without even the decency to throw on a shawl of fairness. Just raw and naked racism in Jena. No brakes, no shame.
As before, there are still counterforces available. Late last week, an appellate court threw out the conviction of one of the six black boys facing decades in prison for beating up a white schoolmate whose injuries didn’t require so much as a full day in the clinic.
But, as in Little Rock, getting to the root of the problem -- that thing that creates injustice in the first place -- is a long and grueling process. And, apparently, it never quite gets expunged. It just moves on.
When we gather at Central High next week, I’ll be thinking of Jena. Hoping that, in the short run, the Jena Six will get a full dose of justice despite a weak, dull-headed prosecutor who begs his own prosecution and despite the prejudice, ignorance and indecency to which the so-called lawman has bowed.
Hoping, too, that in the long run, the Jena Six, like the Little Rock Nine, will get to live full lives with good, bad and mediocre days and, as grandparents, will look back on these awful days as the start of something righteous.
And, in 2057, when they reunite to cheer the good difference they made even at risk to life and liberty, I hope they won’t be thinking of some other place where racism has just encamped down the road apiece.
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GeorgeGW says:
baltimoresun.com Child's killer pleads guilty His confession offers no motive for murder of boy he
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lovelyhoney says:
Whoa......Excellent point!
mrlove07 says:
we are supposed to be at war with TERROR. black america needs to call these nooses what they are, TERRORIST
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Nickadelic1a says:
One thing that I think we must recognize is that as far as white America is concerned, racism against people
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Nickadelic1a says:
One thing that I think we must recognize is that as far as white America is concerned, racism against people
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