Whats Happening In Jena Today

National Action Network/Michael Baisden rally
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday that he, Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, radio show host Michael Baisden, TV and movie personality Tyler Perry and bus-loads of supporters will be arriving in Jena today in the wee hours of the morning.
Sharpton said the buses will meet at 5 a.m. at the Rapides Parish Coliseum in Alexandria and caravan to Jena, arriving at the LaSalle Parish Courthouse.

There, the buses will unload the groups of people, who will stage a rally in front of the courthouse. Following that rally, Sharpton said the group will march to Jena High School, where another rally will take place.

After the rally at the high school, the group will return to the courthouse, where the ralliers will load back onto the buses and return to Alexandria for a rally planned for noon, Sharpton said.

The groups will gather in front of city hall in Alexandria where Sharpton and Baisden will broadcast their radio shows.

He said that at no point will the group go to the Ward 10 Recreation Center south of Jena, where other groups are planning to congregate and march.

There is so much support for this," said Rachel Noerdlinger, the vice president of communications for Sharpton's National Action Network of the Jena Six. "Definitely, different groups will be doing different things."

At noon Wednesday, Sharpton and Baisden met with Bell and others at the LaSalle Parish Jail saying it was hard to see Bell shackled and hand-cuffed, but that the boy was encouraged by all the support.

Sharpton stressed that Bell didn't want anyone disparaging his name or the cause by any acts of violence or negativity.


NAACP rally and events

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual state conference has been scheduled for months to begin today in Alexandria. Organizers thought that there was no better way to kick off their conference than with a rally in support of the Jena Six and for justice in Jena and everywhere, Louisiana NAACP president Ernest Johnson said.

Ralliers with this group are expected to meet at the Ward 10 Recreation Center between 6 and 7 a.m. with the rally kicking off at 8 a.m. Speakers at the rally include NAACP national president Dennis Courtland Hayes, Congresswoman Maxine Walters, Civil Rights activist Dick Gregory and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He said Martin Luther King III, Bernice King and Sharpton are expected to speak at their event as well.

After the rally, a nearly two-mile march to the courthouse is planned.

"There has been a great injustice," Johnson said of the case involving the teens. "One of these teens has been in jail for almost a year from something that was clearly nothing more than a school fight. The punishment is not fitting the crime."

After the march is completed, they are heading back to Alexandria where the NAACP convention is being held. Johnson said they are hosting a Town Hall meeting about disparities in the public school system at the Alexander Fulton Hotel convention center.



Jena Six Benefit Concert

The families of the Jena Six have organized a benefit concert for noon today at the Ward 10 park to "bring together the young people of Jena and surrounding communities with local artists and performers from around the country," concert organizer Catrina Wallace said.

She said the concert is a "unifying event that shares cultural music, spoken word and poetry, as well as the collective struggle to overcome racism and hatred." Wallace said concert speakers and performers will also share their vision for young people, families and communities achieving justice and equity.

Those coming, Wallace said, include David Banner, Lyfe Jennings, Bay Bay, Hurricane Chris, Trill Ent, Big Boom & 2Throwed, Sunni Patterson, Stooge's Brass Band and Big Unk.

Earlier reports from Wallace that Cupid, creator of the popular Cupid Shuffle line dance, would be performing were incorrect. Cupid said he was never contacted about performing in the town.

"I didn't know anything about this until my dad saw it in the paper and called me," said Cupid, aka Bryson Bernard of Lafayette. "This is wrong information being put out by a promoter who never contacted me."




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