This issue concerns a throwback to Jim Crow when White’s Only signs permeated the South. In this case the sign was not physical but in the minds of all concerned. An old live oak shaded an area of the hot campus of Jena High School in Louisiana, it was understood that the shade was for White’s only. Afer all, Black people like to roast in the hot sun, why else would they have chosen to be slaves for 300 years? Some uppity Negro students who were no longer slaves decided they liked shade too and took some relief from the sun last September. To make a long story short, some White boys hung nooses from the limbs of the tree and kicked some Black ass. Then some Black boys kicked some White ass. The White boys were very lightly reprimanded by the school while the Black boys were thrown in jail to face life in prison for attempted murder.
The tree has been cut down and Al Sharpton is in town. The fine people of Jena are madder than cats in a can about having to deal with even more Upitty Negroes while also now suffering less shade in their lives. How many Upitty Negroes will arrive in Jena today to decry this racial injustice is still unknown, but taking the issue at face value I would hope it’s all of them. The name of the prosecutor who created this mess is LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters. Add another name to the historic list already in the Book of Assholes: Bull Conner, George Wallace, Reed Walters etc…