A woman of integrity and fellow Poynter
Diversity Across the Curriculum 07 participant sent this more balanced response
to the !@##$$% racist idiot Craig Franklin, editor of the local Jena Times
newspaper. This is a link to Howard Witt’s response to questions about Franklin’s Christian
Science Monitor piece that is so like Al Thomkin’s racist Poynter
article. It includes a link to the response by Alan Bean the pastor who told
Witt about the case and the director of a civil rights group called Friends of
Justice. The CSM piece is UGLY and full of revisionist/apologist propaganda.
here is a response i send
out whenever i get emails about franklin's piece:
Dear xxx:
Thanks for your inquiry. I am familiar with the article Craig Franklin, editor
of the local Jena Times newspaper, wrote for the Christian Science Monitor.
Unfortunately, that article was filled with revisionist history.
If you care
to read a pretty thorough debunking of Franklin's
claims, I would recommend the following, written by Alan Bean, director of a
civil rights group called Friends of Justice, who was the first outsider to
investigate the Jena
case. It can be found at:
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/the-story-you-havent-heard-unless-youve-been-paying-attention/
I'm afraid I have neither the time nor the inclination to engage in a
point-by-point refutation of Franklin's
article. I'll let my extensive reporting on the Jena story, available at
www.chicagotribune.com/jena, stand as my rebuttal.
But I will give you just one example of where Franklin twists the facts. Franklin contends that the nooses were not a
threat directed at black students. I can tell you that my reporting in Jena over the last six
months reveals otherwise.
Fact: The principal at Jena
High School did not
regard the nooses as a harmless incident. He recommended that the three white
students who hung the nooses be permanently expelled from school. That
recommendation was overridden, however, by the school superintendent, who
announced that the nooses were just a youthful prank. Soon afterward, the
principal was transferred to a different job in the school district central
office.
Fact: LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters-the same man who is
prosecuting the Jena
6 teenagers for the beating of Justin Barker-did not believe the nooses were an
innocent prank.
"This was an awful act," Walters told reporters on the day before the
Sept. 20 civil rights march through Jena.
"It was not a prank but a vicious and crude statement.... The people who
did it should be ashamed of themselves and mortified at the havoc they have
unleashed on this community."
Walters added, however, that he could find no Louisiana statute that was violated by the
youths who hung the nooses, so he did not charge them with any crime.
Fact: The U.S. attorney
for the Western District of Louisiana, Donald Washington, declared that the
hanging of the nooses constituted a hate crime, although he declined to
prosecute the students because of their ages.
"Yes,
hanging a noose under these circumstances is a hate crime," Washington testified before the House Judiciary Committee
in Washington
last month. "If these acts had been committed by others who were not
juveniles, this would have been a federal hate crime, and we would have moved
forward."
hope this answers your questions. good luck with your seminar.
regards,
howard witt
We sometimes have problems with our server
rejecting incoming email. If your reply to this email is returned to
you, PLEASE call me at the number below. Apologies...We are
working on it. Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin, Professor
Department of Communications
Alabama
State University
915 South Jackson St.
Montgomery,
AL 36101-0271
334.229.6885
Thank you in advance for your
Scholarly & Creative Activity
Referrals -
Lectures, Performances, Workshops,
Consultation Related Info: http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin/