Eyes On The Prize!

In September of last year, at a High School in Jena, Louisiana, a group of African American students decided they wanted to sit under the Whites Only tree on tthe school lawn. They asked permission from the school authorities and the next day arrived at school to find nooses hanging from the branches of the treein the school colors.

The nooses were labled a harmlesss prank and the students who put them up were suspended. The Black residents of Jena didn't take it, though. Fights and unrest started breaking out at the school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters was called in to address the black students directly. He told them that he could "end their life with a stroke of a pen."

Things got really crazy, black students were assaulted, a man pulled a gun on a group of students in a store. They wrestled the gun away from him and ran away. Some one tried to burn down the school. Then a fight broke out in the school and 6 black students were arrested for assault and true to his word, DA Walters upped the charges to attempted murder and asked for maximum sentences, 80 years.

Four of the six are being tried as adults, they are 17 and 18 and the others are being tried as juveniles.

This is the backdrop of an America which has convinced itself that it not racist and set the stage for the the Supreme Court decision that undid 53 years of Civil Rights legislation yesterday.

53 years ago, Brown vs. The Board of Education ruled that segregation was inherently unequal ands ordered schools to integrate. Since 1954, the Supreme Court has been the driving force to force America to open its buses, public buildings, parks and playgrounds to all.

It was a struggle to enforce the ruling. Governors, angry senators and mobs threatened massive resistance. The Court never wavered and in most of the ensuing cases, it spoke unanimously.

At a time when the nation is becoming more diverse, the schools are becoming more segregated. More than one in six black children attend schools that are 99 to 100%
minority. This resegregation is only going to get worse due this courts ruling.

The embers of hate are never extinguished and it only takes a small wind to start the fiires roaring again. The White Conservative Male class of America is feeling threatened and you only have to listen to the rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh abd Bill O'Rielly to get a mild version of the bile being swilled.

We forget what a grand struggle it was for Black Americans to gain the fragile equality they deserve. We forget the martyrs, the heroes, the villains, the dark side of America.

The video I have for this post is a cut from Mavis Staples new CD, We'll Never Turn Back! The cut is Eyes On The Prize.
Mavis was on the frontlines of the struggle along with her sisters and father, The Staple Singers. It's been a life long commitment for her and she is now in her late 70's. If you don't know Mavis, go back in time and check out her monster 60's classic, A House Is Not A Home. One of the greatest voices American music is still singing and testifying! The CD is almost autobiographical and tells her struggle to brilliantly sparse backing and production by Ry Cooder.
We need Mavis now more than ever!