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
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Comment
Policy
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.