An Unexpected Voice on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Death James Rucker - t r u t h o u t go to original
YouTube video excerpt on Martin Luther King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech's conclusion (April 3, 1968)
Yesterday, an unexpected voice emerged to reflect on the 41st anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death - Mychal Bell's. Mychal is one of the Jena 6, six black students charged with second-degree attempted murder for their alleged role in an attack on a white student at their high school in Jena, Louisiana. The Jena 6 galvanized tens of thousands of people from all over the country and the world. Seeing a kind of Deep South justice (complete with nooses hanging from a "whites only" tree) that many thought was a thing of the past was certainly part of what evoked people's outrage. But more than that was the fundamental realization that what was happening to these six young black men was happening to so many young men like them all over the country. The reality is that black boys, especially those from low-income communities, making the kind of mistakes all young people make, face horrible odds. Their skin color and class make them suspect - it's as if the outside world is waiting for evidence of their criminal essence, waiting for a reason to deny them their humanity. Black boys like the Jena 6 don't get the benefit of the doubt; they don't get the second chances quickly afforded to others; and any brush with the law can catapult them into a system that's bigger than them, biased against them, and impossible to navigate alone. Mychal got lucky. Were it not for the intense public outcry of his case, he could have been just another young man sucked into the criminal justice system. Instead, he's someone who can remind us of our hopes for all our young people - that they get the chance to learn from their mistakes; that they get the chance to heal; that they get the chance to grow. James Rucker is Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org, an online advocacy organization of over 500,000 members focused on amplifying the political voice of Black America. ColorOfChange played a pivotal role in galvanizing public support for the Jena 6, with more than 300,000 members participating in grassroots actions and over 5,000 contributing more than $250,000 for the Jena 6's legal defense.
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Editorials | Opinions | April 2009 
James Rucker - t r u t h o u t
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