Jena, Louisiana - Everything Must Change!

I grew up and came to maturity about 70 miles South of Jena, Louisiana. If you looked at a map of Louisiana, the town of Opelousas (St. Landry Parish), where I grew up is almost directly South of Jena (as the crow flies!). A few days ago I received an invitation to the 40th Class Reunion for members of the 1968 graduating class of J. S. Clark High School. Louisiana has been on my mind a lot lately. I visit my home state frequently from my house in the Bronx, via the INTERNET. The poverty in the state (the poorest in the nation)and the unfinished Katrina story, are subjects on my mind.

The news from Jena suggest two scenarios about Louisiana. One is familiar. While much has changed, much remains the same. Or worst, nothing has changed, and therefore everything remains the same.

My old high school, J. S. Clark, a relic of the "separate and unequal days" was thankfully closed in about 1970. Black children were then bussed to the newer Opelousas High School (previously for whites only.) Integration, of course, did not work. Opelouas High School is about 75% Black today and 24% white. Opelousas has a few private (some "christian") schools where whites are in a safe majority.

While some things have changed in towns such as Jena and Opelousas, segregation remains embedded. Neighborhoods have not changed. Poor Black people, and some poor whites ones live separate lives apart from one another. Churches, for the most part continue as racial institutions. In Jena, there was until recently, a "tree" which shaded white children in a public school yard. You can believe that other spots such as bars, Rotary and Lions Clubs, gyms and other institutions, while sporting welcome documents and signs, as closed to some people as they have always been.

The breaches in these communities are very real. The walls that separate are as high as the would-be wall between Mexico and the United States, and as environmentally distracting as the wall separating Israelis from Palestinians. In Louisiana the walls separating people are built into the psyche. In order for progress to be made in Louisiana, a whole lot more must change. Otherwise, Jena is what it is. Jena is
a symptom of a systemic statewide problem. Not even 60,000 marchers can make this problem go away. No court decision will force change. There must be a change in the hearts and minds of people.