Blast from the Past III: Jena Six Reflections.....Lord I was Glad to be in the NUMBER!

Back on the Bus Again: The Resurrection of the Struggle

I have always wondered what it would be like take a pilgrimage or go on a search to become connected spiritually and mentally to the “big picture” or as a simple part to a whole. Many of the great leaders and theologians that I have study each took their own individual journey to find moral significance as it pertains to life. El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. each took pilgrimages to their Holy Land affiliated with their religions and trod in paths as thousands had done before them .
On Thursday, September 20, 2007 I, Deven D. Anderson took my pilgrimage. No, I didn’t travel to Mecca to stand in awe at the “Dome on the Rock” or even to take a spiritual dip in the Jordan River where Jesus the Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. However, I along with thousands of thousands of other brothers and sisters sojourned to Jena, Louisiana not simply to march or chant but to emphasize and to illustrate the word “unity” in community.
I can only imagine that the ancestors were smiling down with pride while down below Jim Crow rolled in his grave as 24 college students both black and white gathered in the K Parking Lot on the campus of the College of Charleston to begin the road trip down to the Jena Six Rally in Jena, La. I must admit riding in a 15 passenger van for more than 13 hours in the late hours of the night and on into the wee hours of the morning can be an interesting ride. Passing through Atlanta and Birmingham and seeing exit signs leading to Montgomery, these were the battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement; I felt as though I was a 21st Century Freedom Rider but more importantly I felt like a pilgrim.
Upon our arrival into Louisiana we were greeted by the sights of a chain gang adorning the outdated black and white striped jail suit picking up trash and then observing numerous cotton fields where our ancestors worked and slaved. I could have sworn I saw the spirits and the worn faces of our ancestors who toiled in those fields waving and cheering us on as we passed and I knew I was on my pilgrimage.
Arriving in Jena was an experience in itself. After passing the welcome sign that said, “Welcome to Jena a nice place to call home” I felt anywhere but home. Everywhere you turned there was nothing but signs on the door that read “closed” but some took it even further to write “closed” in big white letters on the windows as if there wasn’t a sign already in the door. Passing by trailers and brick homes all that could be seen were cars in the yard but it seemed as if no one was home. We had the town shut down and on lock! Now that’s Black Power! Then the words of a spiritual rung in my ears “Lord I am pilgrim and a stranger and traveling this o’foreign land.”
The brothers and sisters in Jena, La were an accurate depiction of Black America. Muslims, Christians, the Black Panthers, SCLC, NAACP, HBCUs, numerous civic and social organizations were represented with Blacks and Whites marching and chanting “No Justice No Peace!” As we marched to the Lafayette Parish Courthouse we began to sing the songs of old bringing old feelings of the days of Civil Rights Movement to our elders who marched along with us. Generations coming together, it seems as though in Jena a torch or baton was being passed to my generation to now carry what was started long before us. We were swamped in a crowd with people everywhere, only enough room to breathe in between you and those surrounding you all while standing listening to speakers ranging from the Darryl Matthews, General President of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. to the grandmother of Mychal Bell to Ricky Smiley leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of an old Negro spiritual.
I happened to meet an elder from Detroit, Michigan who was with his young grandson when he made the most profound statement I am stuck in the middle of humanity. The concept that all these people representing the various races, creed, nationalities, religion, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and institutions of higher learning were physically packed together in front of the courthouse but spiritually this elder was in the middle humanity and the best it had to offer. It was then I realized that this issue is not just a black issue but it’s a human issue and that I have reached the peak in my pilgrimage.
There is so much more to be said but restraints will not permit. However, I will forever cherish the essence in the feeling of family while in Jena. No matter who you were or where you were from everyone was treated as a brother or a sister. I still smile at the fact that people from California and from other places taken pictures with our group as if we were celebrities. But it was not the fact that were celebrities we were group of young people who sacrificed and recognized that it was time for us to get back on the bus and to resurrect the struggle. One the most moving scenes on the way home was passing a Harley Davidson motorcycle club and one the drivers pulled ahead of us and threw up six fingers representing the Jena Six and even though we never met the driver or will never know who he is on that particular evening we had a connection, a family connection.
Now 12 days later the last of the Jena Six is free, Mr. Bush has finally made statements in regards to this atrocity, and now mostly everyone in the world knows that racial inequality still exists and that we have resurrected the struggle. Peace and Blessings.