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Reverend Raymond C. Bell of First Rising Mount Zion Church speaks with DC Urban LifeStyle Magazine
about the march on Washington, and the still pending Jena 6 case.
On Jena Louisiana...
DCULSMagazine: In your opinion, when you
talk about Jena, what has always been the climate there?
RCB:
“When I grew up going back and forth to Jena it was just a little country town.
My mother told me it was a racist town, and when they would go to school they [whites] would throw rocks at them while
they were walking to school. She said there’s always been tension, but
it’s always been quiet.”
DCULSMagazine: How’s Mychal at this point?
Rev Bell:
“Mychal is doing fine. We talked to his mother last night. She had just returned, the day before, from visiting him and she said his spirit is
well.”
DCULSMagazine: Is he back in prison right
now on another charge, or is he out?
Rev Bell:
“He’s back in a secured area, like a juvenile detention center on another charge. One prior to the Jena
6 charge. However, the other charge was not going to be charged, but because
of vengeance of the judge they charged him after he was released from the fight situation.”
DCULSMagazine: Is that, in your opinion, a violation of his civil rights in any way?
Rev Bell: “I don’t know if that is a violation of his civil rights, but it’s
a violation of his freedom. I think its just vengeance, in my view.”
DCULSMagazine: Can that be contested?
Rev Bell: “It
is. Right now there is a motion being filed by his lawyers to contest it.”
DCULSMagazine: Would you say that the Jena 6 is the impetus for the March on Washington?
Rev Bell: “Yes. The Jena 6 was exactly the
impetus, but it’s not the only one. There are situations in West, Virginia
with the young [tortured] lady, the situation in Florida with the young man being killed, the situation in South Carolina
where the was a noose hung on the professor’s door. There’s also
Sean Bell being killed. There’s also another young man in West Minster,
Arkansas that ‘s having the same issue, and the justice department is not stepping in.”
DCULSMagazine: A lot of
people are starting to believe that had it not been for the Jena 6 a lot of these instances would have gone unnoticed. Is that your opinion as well?
Rev Bell: “Exactly. The young man who
requested to sit under the tree in Jena brought it to attention. I also have
to give Al Sharpton, and Martin Luther King, III credit, because had they not seen the seriousness of that issue and bought
some light to it from a national point of view, they [the Jena 6] would still be struggling in Jena, right now. And really across the country. All these issues would not
have been connected.”
DCULSMagazine: What were some of the
feelings and emotions you had when you learned what had happened to the students?
Rev Bell: “I
thought it was ridiculous. I had never heard
of anything like this before, where on the one hand they were over charging the Black kids, while saying the white kids just
pulled a prank. I just thought it
was absolutely ridiculous. And our family felt the same way.”
DCULSMagazine: How
did you feel when you saw a whole nation come together in support of the Jena 6?
Rev Bell: “When
the whole country came together it made us feel like people cared, and people love. And it showed we [as a people] love ourselves. We
certainly thank everyone for coming and helping our family. We’re not the
richest family in the world. We’re not the most famous family in the world,
but yet still God used our family to bring attention to the injustices going on around the country.”
DCULSMagazine: And
certainly, the incident with the Jena 6 shined light, and let people know that in fact there is an issue there in Jena, and
there is a problem there. So any body who is saying Jena 6 isn’t a racist
town, or whatever, we have proof now. Would you say that is true?
Rev Bell:
“Oh, yeah. Always was racist, but everybody sort of kept to their
place. When I visited before the march my uncle was still worried about people
coming down [for the march].”
DCULSMagazine: Did
they think there would be backlash if people came down to Jena?
Rev Bell: “They
knew there would be some backlash.”
DCULSMagazine: Have
they experienced any?
Rev Bell:
“I’ve not spoken to them about it, but certainly Mychal Bell has experience backlash with him being going
back to prison. His father was fired, and his mother has been isolated in the community.
So yes, they have experienced some backlash.”
DCULSMagazine: Why would the white citizens of that town think there is no racism in Jena?
Rev Bell: “Because when you’ve always
been in the majority and you see Black people as a threat, anything that Black people do, the slightest bit of it –
they [whites] got the idea that they’re going to put a stop to it. You
can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it here, and that’s how the town is going to live.”
But
they didn’t think that people were going to take this seriously. They didn’t
think that people around the country was going to come. Matter of fact when we
went to the march, they ony thought five thousand people would show up, but when 50,000 people showed up they were shocked! They couldn’t believe that this town could attract this kind of attention; and
they didn’t understand how serious those nooses were and how critical it was to Black people.”
DCULSMagazine: Have the hanging of nooses in Louisiana become a hate crime now?
Rev
Bell:
I don’t know. It should be.
That’s why I am going to protest on November 16th, because somebody should have been prosecuted for
it.
DC Urban LifeStyle Magazine ‘googled’ the word noose in an advanced search of the word. See what we got.
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