Jena

In 1997, David Bowie hosted and performed in a star-studded benefit concert for Save The Children, in celebration of his fiftieth birthday. I never heard the total amount raised, but it must have been significant, because the evening featured Bowie performing with Frank Black, The Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Billy Corgan, Robert Smith, and Lou Reed in his first public appearance with Bowie in over twenty years.

The show sold-out Madison Square garden.

David Bowie, whose work for Save The Children has been known for over a decade, has stepped-up to the plate again by donating $10,000 to a legal defense fund for six black teens charged (most as adults) in an attack on a white classmate in the tiny central Louisiana town of Jena. The fight which landed the black teens in jail was perpetrated by both sides, black and white, and was instigated by white teens hanging nooses (a centuries-old racist image in the South) from a tree under which they believe only whites should be allowed in the shade.

A protest march today, Thursday, will march past the tree that became the focal point of the current racial tensions. Well, the protesters will march past what is left of it.

The tree on the campus of Jena High School was a gathering spot for white students. When a black student asked school officials if blacks could sit there too, three nooses were found hanging from the tree.

The tree was cut down during the racial turmoil that ensued.

The white teens have not been charged with any crime, but the black teens are being tried as adults and one has already been found gully. Though a higher court has overturned the conviction, prosecutors have filed appeals hoping to have the conviction upheld, and the defendant faces 15 years in prison.

The white kids walk away.

Of course.

This is America.

Irrespective of guilt or innocence, the matter at hand here is that there is no equity. The laws of Louisiana are being enforced selectively.

Thank God for men like David Bowie. Others should step forward, too.

Rocker Donates to Jena 6 Defense Fund

David Bowie donates $10,000 to defend US accused

David Bowie Donates to Defense Fund in Racially-Charged Brawl

Thanks to Adam for sending this along.


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