Mychal Bell, center, one of the Jena Six, appears with attorneys Carol Powell Lexing, left, and Louis Scott leaves LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, La., Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. Bell, whose prosecution in the beating of a white classmate prompted a massive civil rights protest here was released on bail Thursday. His release came hours after a prosecutor confirmed that he will no longer seek an adult trial for the teen.(AP Photo By Alex Brandon)
Tha Artivist Reports…
It is funny because I must have some eerie sense of prophetic timing…Bro. Marcus Jones (the father of The Jena 6’s Mychal Bell) had been on my mind for weeks…I meant to call him Thanksgiving Day, but got caught up in my battles for space that the day passed me by…However, I made it a point to call him early the following week…To hear his voice was great, but also there was of course frustration...Bro. Marcus has been unemployed for well over a year, he was dismissed or rather fired from his job because of his involvement in the Jena 6 case…I told him to continue to keep his head up and eyes on the prize, better days are around the corner...I then closed the conversation by saying that I will contact him later in the week...
And then it happened...
Last Thursday (Dec. 4, 2008) I was glad that I did ‘flush’ in time to receive some of the best news I have heard in days…Bro. Marcus Jones, a very good friend of Tha Artivist in particular and of W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio in general, left a voice message special delivery style informing me that his son Bro. Mychal Bell was unequivocally freed from the state that Thursday…True jubilation could be heard in Bro.Marcus’s voice…His son had been a prisoner of the state as well as of public opinion for three years…
Humbly speaking, W.E. A.L.L B.E. News & Radio had been one of the first U.S. media outlets to interview some of the key players in The Jena 6 Saga including Bro. Marcus Jones in late July 2007…Looking back on it, it is truly surprising how little was known of the case right before the historic march on Sept. 20, 2007…I also helped in bringing Bro. Marcus Jones to my college alma mater, Washington University, to speak about his son and the overall Jena 6 situation post-march/rally that October…Meeting and hanging out with him was a true revelation...I did not know what to expect, but I was pleased to had met him and make his acquaintance…He was truly a down to earth self described country boy who had a good sense of humor, was colorfully plain spoken and to the point who just wanted justice done for his son and the other boys known collectively as the Jena 6…
Activists Unite!!! Bro. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist (left) With Schlumberger 2's Sis. Tawanna Thierry and Jena 6's Marcus Jones @ The National Action Network Conference in Memphis Friday April 4, 2008
Some people accused Marcus Jones of being a braggart…I would probably say that his ‘cockiness’ comes from his confidence with a background in athletics...Marcus because of his personality is a very polarizing figure, you either love the guy or you hate him, there is no in between with how one feels with Bro. Marcus…In a way Bro. Marcus Jones is in exceptional company, most people from what I read in history who are endowed with a great sense of purpose or duty, even when they fail to realize it themselves, usually are gifted at making friends and enemies easily…As evidenced by recent legal troubles and his ability to elude them like a pro-bowl running back, Bro. Marcus has painfully learned the ins and outs and pros and cons of being an unofficial spokesperson for righteous struggle in our apartheid of a just us system… With that said Bro. Marcus has finally realized for better or worse who his real friends and supporters are…Many people have made promises that weren’t kept…And so here we all are…
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses”
~Malcolm X
In the age of the internet, character assassinations are more effective and easier to come by than physical ones…Bro. Marcus was the most outspoken and colorful of the parents, so it didn’t help matters that the corporate media was attracted to everything about this very charismatic and magnetic personality…That means that they reported on the good and bad as well as took things said and done by Bro. Marcus out of proper context… The corporate media in this country has a way of taking people’s eyes off the facts and information of a case and inundating the general public with useless ‘tabloidish junkformation’ that it sometimes leaves the mind in a comatose state and starving for critical thought and analysis…The reason for this is because the nature of the corporate media in this country is more interested in car wrecks and bailouts than car safety and fuel efficiency…With that said there was a lot of confusion and misinformation about the case that kinda of placed a stigma on the whole thing it…It went from being Eyes on The Prize to The Flavor of Love in a New York minute… Although corporate media outlets did their best to undermine the Jena 6 movement and one of its most engaging personalities in Bro. Marcus Jones it failed miserable…For this cause is bigger than one man or moment…This is about universal redemption, atonement and justice not about ad rates and t.v. ratings…
By the way his son was (and still is) a very promising football player who had dreams of playing for the legendary SEC powerhouse LSU…However, these past three years in the state’s possession may have seemed like 30 years to young Mychal…I am not sure if football is at the top of his priorities as is getting out of Jena with its neo-Jim Crow apartheid practices… Also it was good to know that Mychal will finally fulfill the year late promise of the ill-fated plea bargain deal that was created by the Keystone cops who went posing as Mychal Bell’s lawyers which was to spend Christmas with family and friends…By the way Mychal’s legal representatives were not present when their client was officially released from the state on Dec.4…
The Rev. Al Sharpton (center) escorts the mother and father of “Jena Six” member Mychal Bell – Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones – into Trout Creek Baptist Church in Jena in August 2007. Melissa Bell and Marcus Jones are also facing legal difficulties. Bell was arrested last Saturday, accused of assaulting two women with a shovel, while Jones was accused this August of shoving his son’s attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing. (Town Talk photo/photos@thetowntalk.com)
And this is what I want us all to understand…Yes it was great that people showed up for a day to protest their outrage about the legal lynching of these young black men…However, historically speaking nothing was ever solved by a protest march, sit-in or emotionally moving speech alone…You must have follow through and resoluteness to get what you want especially if what you want be justice…Frederick Douglass said with good reason that power concedes nothing without a demand…Everything that is done in this dimension must be willed…For example, people must realize that we are now living in the age of citizen journalism which means that blogs and youtube may be more reliable than New York Times, Fox News, CNN or MSNBC…I don’t know it’s kinda hard for me to believe everything that MSNBC/NBC put out in their media outlets about our two wars when you are owned by a corporation that benefits immensely form wars (General Electric, why you do you think Joe Scarsborough and his first generation American sidekick Nikka lose their swagger and pundit courage when their massa Papa Jack ‘Old As Methuselah’ Welch comes on the air talking tough…Papa don’t take no mess, especially if the kids want paychecks)…
New Fans Of The Art Of Tha Artivist: (Left to Right) Bro. Tony Brown, R2C2H2, And Bro. Marcus Jones
Anyway one must remember that it was community radio, the bloggers and foreign press who started the coverage on Jena 6…It was the BBC who produced a documentary about the travesty in May 2007...Not Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Tavis Smiley or Soledad O’Brien, but the foreign press in places like Italy were the ones alerting the world about what was going down in Jena Town…With that said it was the savvy and popular Louisiana community radio talk show host Bro. Tony Brown out of Alexandria who coined the phrase Jena 6…Bro. Tony Brown helped initially organize the families involved as well as help them contact Rev. Al Sharpton and his posse...And the rest as they say is history...Or is it???
What is ironic is the fact that people have really tried to pimp the Jena 6 bandwagon…I have surfed the nets with folks using as their byline “I was the first to report about the Jena 6”…That’s fine, that’s human nature, but here’s the thing don’t stop reporting about the Jena 6 until the case is done…We owe it to ourselves to always be about the business of keeping things checked and balanced…We must be vigilant and on the lookout everywhere...We have the tools and resources, we now must also have the will…Like MLK stated "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"…
With that said the other five boys known as the Jena 6 still have their day(s) in court awaiting them so this fiasco is far from over…Until The Jena 6 Are Free, Neither Are We!!!
Yours in righteous and creative struggle and THE FIRST ONE TO BRING YOU THE NEWS THAT MYCHAL BELL IS REALLY FREE,
R2C2H2 Tha Artivist
More Jena 6 News On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio:
We Decide 2008!!!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/09/22/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio
New Jena 6 Update...Marcus Jones' Updated Press Release...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-jena-6-updatemarcus-jones-updated.html
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-jena-6-updatemarcus-jones-updated.html
Jena 6 Is Far From Over...Mychal Bell's Lawyer Sells Out Client For A Plea...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/05/jena-6-is-far-from-overmychal-bells.html
Jena 6 Far From Over...Marcus Jones, Father Of Mychal Bell Speaks Out Once Again...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/05/jena-6-far-from-overmarcus-jones-father.html
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/05/jena-6-far-from-overmarcus-jones-father.html
April 27, 2008*Listen To The Latest Marcus Jones Interview (The Interview Is The First Hour Of Show) In Its Entirety By Clicking On The Following Link:
Special Jena 6 Post-Plea Bargain Show On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio
To listen to the entire Attorney Louis Scott and Marcus Jones interviews as well as others on this case please visit the following link on-line:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2007/12/16/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio
Marcus Jones Sounds Off About Mychal Bell's Plea Bargain~
Father from Jena 6 Family Disagrees with Lawyer
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/630725/marcus_jones_sounds_off_about_mychal.html
To listen to the entire Attorney Louis Scott and Marcus Jones interviews as well as others on this case please visit the following link on-line:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2007/12/16/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio
Marcus Jones Sounds Off About Mychal Bell's Plea Bargain~
Father from Jena 6 Family Disagrees with Lawyer
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/630725/marcus_jones_sounds_off_about_mychal.html
Jena 6 Plea Bargain Deal Not A Win-Win...Tha Artivist Reports...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/12/jena-6-plea-bargain-deal-not-win-wintha.html
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/12/jena-6-plea-bargain-deal-not-win-wintha.html
Jena 6 Defendant’s Plea Bargain Garners Mixed Response From Supporters, Experts And Onlookers...Tha Artivist Reports...
"Jena 6 Updates: Mychal Bell Plea Bargains" By Maroonsista:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/548601/jena_6_update_and_mychal_bells_plea.html
11-25-2007~W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Exclusive~James Rucker Defends Color Of Change In Jena 6 Gate:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/blog/2007/11/25/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/548601/jena_6_update_and_mychal_bells_plea.html
11-25-2007~W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Exclusive~James Rucker Defends Color Of Change In Jena 6 Gate:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/blog/2007/11/25/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio
So-called Jena 6 Scandal More A Matter Of Bad Communication Tha Artivist Reports...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/11/so-called-jena-6-scandal-more-matter-of.html
Artivist MCs Historic Jena 6 Forum @ Washington University In St. Louis...
Artivist MCs Historic Jena 6 Forum @ Washington University In St. Louis...
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2007/10/artivist-mcs-historic-jena-6-forum.html
The First Jena 6 Show On W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio:
UNTIL THE JENA 6 ARE FREE NEITHER ARE WE!!!
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