Alpha Phi Alpha holds program to talk about events of Jena 6

     Due to the events going on in Louisiana with the Jena 6, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. held a program titled “The African American Journey.”
     Ajayi Monell, senior mass communication major and president of Alpha Phi Alpha, said the program was done to create awareness of inequities that still exist, and to let people know it is time for change.
     “Being that Georgia College is a predominately white school, I thought it would be important to do a program about this,” Monell said. “I wanted to do a program that was hard-hitting."”
     The program was held on Sept. 26 because several years ago, the day was known as Negro Day.
     At the beginning of the program, Jennifer Wallach, associate professor of history, discussed lynching and how it was used as a method of controlling blacks. Lynching was talked about to show the historical context of the nooses on the tree during the Jena incident.
     She presented very graphic photos of black people being lynched and people using it as a fun event for the family. She said that although the lynchings of others had people frightened, some black people chose to do something about it.
     “Despite the fact they were being segregated by law, they still found ways to fight back,” Wallach said.
     Lauren Jack, mother of senior political science major, Jacinda Jack, spoke at the program as well. She spoke of the importance of the younger generation getting involved and generating change.
     “We’re all here together,” Jack said. “We all have to care about one another. As American citizens, we can’t look at it as a black and white issue, we have to come together.”
     Fenicia Stephens, senior information systems major, said she found the program to be very informative.
     “I think that it was very much needed and opened eyes to and refreshed memories about the history (of black people),” Stephens said.
     According to junior middle grades education major Roderick Sylvester, the program was very successful and necessary. He said that it is necessary for black people to reflect on their history and to remember it.
     “We, as black people, tend to focus on iced out grills, the cars, all the good stuff,” Sylvester said. “(There are) more important things for us to be focused on in terms of supporting each other and things like that. I definitely think it’s good to talk about every now an then and reflect and be appreciative of where we came from.”
     Eddie Etom, GCSU alumni and member of Alpha Phi Alpha, said that people have to be the change they want to see. He said the only way to create real change is to interact with each other.
     "We can change policies and that’s cool, but if we still have hatred for one another and we discriminate (amongst) each other and do not appreciate cultures or accept differences … we are going to be stuck still, so we have to be that change within ourselves," Etom said.
     Monell said he wanted the audience to learn about the struggles that black people have gone through. He also wanted people to know that black history is a part of everyone’s history and to learn about that past.
     “We just wanted everyone to come and learn about the past, so you can understand the present and appreciate the future that you do have because of people in the past.”

Jena 6: The facts

Fall 2006- a black student asked their vice-principal if he and friends could sit under a tree where white students usually congregated. They were told to sit where they wished, and they did. The next day, the students arrived at school to find three nooses hanging from those branches.

Nov. 30, 2006- someone set fire to the school’s main academic building. Four days later, several black students jumped a white student, kicking him and eventually knocking him unconscious. The charges against the Jena 6, as they came to be known, came from that incident.

May 2007- Mychal Bell was convicted of second-degree attempted murder and remained in jail.

September 2007- An appeals court overturned the conviction ruling Bell should have been tried as a minor. He was the last of the six behind bars and was released on a $45,000 bail. The second-degree battery charge against him is still standing.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 5 2007. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry