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Don't Be A Blind Follower

By David Truskoff

01 October, 2007
Countercurrents.org

In Mid September 2007 I received a call from someone I did not know. The person asked me if I wanted to join in the protest to free the "Jenna six"

Six black students at Jenna High School in Central Louisiana were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was badly beaten. The fight began when the Black youths sat under a "White only" shade tree. The black students were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy.

I can remember that at the end of the Mississippi March for Freedom we were all lining up to march into Jackson. It was June 26,1966 and we were tired and depressed. The rifle butts, the tear gas and the billy clubs in Canton Mississippi, had turned us around and most of us felt that the non-violent Civil rights movement of Doctor King needed a new direction.

We tried to make the atmosphere seem like that of a victory parade and joked about where we were going next. I told Stokely Carmichael that I heard we were going on to "Lousyannna" He laughed and said, "I’ll be right behind you." To us "Lousyanna" was a lost cause.

Today Louisiana ranks third in the nation in the number of elected officials per capita convicted of crimes. The horror of racial segregation in New Orleans; the convictions of a Governor, attorney general, commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a state Senate president, to name a few of the convicted officials, still make Louisiana a place that I would rather not go to. Although, I must admit that in my state of Connecticut we have the same list of convicted officials. I think that may be progress for Louisiana. In what some call the state’s black history none of them would have gone to trial.

It took three weeks before I decided to make my answer to the caller public. I do not want to be divisive. That is the last thing that we need.

Here is the essence of what I said.

Do not be a blind follower.

I can remember reading my mother’s literature about the struggle for justice for the "Scottsboro Boys," and her attempt to raise funds for defense attorney. Sam Liebowitz.

March 25, 1931 four black Chattanooga teenagers looking for work in Memphis hauling logs on the river and five other black teens were charged in Alabama of rape. One of the boys was only 13 years old. It was obvious and later proven that they were framed by a prostitute trying to keep herself out of court. The boys spent years in jail. Their lives were destroyed. It was a sophisticated well-orchestrated Lynching. It wasn’t easy during the depression for my mother to raise funds for the defense of four black teenagers in Alabama. I was a teenager myself by the time that I read the material, but I had already taken my stand on Civil rights in America.

I wonder which one, Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson got to Jenna first. We all know they are hopelessly hooked on TV cameras, but I ask you caller not to be a blind follower. You may be doing more harm than good.

Am I aware that racism is alive and well in the United States? Of course I am. Am I aware that the schools in our cities are more segregated today than they were before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus? Of course I am. Am I still ready to stand up to racism whenever it rears its ugly head? Of course I am. Am I willing to stand next to Jessie Jackson and listen to demagogic divisive harangues creating more tension? Of course, I am not.

I hear the old refrain from white residence of Jenna that say there is no race problem there. I heard the same kind of self-deception when I was trying to register voters in Mississippi or acting as a buffer between the red necks and the marchers during the Selma march. It was nothing new to me. ("Our darkies are happy") I attended high school in New Jersey and the school was integrated. It was a Republican conservative town. The whites always claimed that we had no race problem in town. I think they actually talked themselves into believing that. After school the blacks went to their section of town and the white students went to theirs. After all the post football game parties I attended I don’t ever remember seeing a black face at any of them although we had black players on our team. Things haven’t changed that much. Are blacks unfairly treated in the courts in Louisiana, I am sure they are, but I was a court watcher for the Connecticut Council of Churches and Blacks are treated unfairly in Connecticut also. White men charged with a crime would appear before court time and sit outside the prosecutor’s office. Their lawyer would then go in and make a deal with the prosecutor. His client would either just go home or make bail and wait for his deal to come up in court. Blacks could not afford a lawyer nor would a bail bondsmen trust them. They went to jail. I saw it happen over and over again and I doubt if those things have changed anywhere in America.

Would I join Doctor King again and demonstrate against a "white only tree" in front of a school? Yes I would. Would I object to unfair racist court proceedings? Yes I would. Would Doctor King support teen-age thugs who beat a boy senseless, kicked him in the head and risked killing him before he was taken to the hospital? I know he would not and neither will I.

Damn it! If you are going to march, find a real leader, a young committed person and march against segregation in the schools in Hartford Connecticut, Bridgeport, Los Angeles, Trenton, Chicago and almost every city in the country. March for more federal funding for our schools that will help the towns to integrate. There is a dangerous rage about to boil over again in America. Channel it for good and steer away from the demagogues who will grab any incident to elevate them-selves.

David Truskoff

www.erols.com/suttonbear


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