Looks as if white supremacist aren't going to take the
Jena, La. situation sitting down. Nasty threats have
been made on the six black teenagers at the center
of the demonstrations prompting the intervention
of the F.B.I. Check out the story below and by all
means feel free to comment.
No sooner did thousands of African American demonstrators depart the racially tense town of Jena, La., last week after protesting perceived injustices than white supremacists started calling for violence.
First a neo-Nazi website posted the names, addresses and phone numbers of some of the six black teenagers and their families at the center of the Jena Six case, as it has come to be known, and urged followers to find them and "drag them out of the house," prompting an investigation by the FBI.
Then the leader of a white supremacist group in Mississippi published interviews that he conducted with the mayor of Jena and the white teenager who was attacked and beaten, allegedly by the six black youths. In those interviews, the mayor, Murphy McMillin, praised efforts by pro-white groups to organize counterdemonstrations; the teenager, Justin Barker, urged white readers to "realize what is going on, speak up and speak their mind." `
Over the weekend, white extremist websites and blogs filled with invective about the Jena Six case, which has drawn scrutiny from civil rights leaders, three leading Democratic presidential candidates and hundreds of African American bloggers. They are concerned about allegations that blacks have been treated more harshly than whites in the criminal justice system of the town of 3,000, which is 85% white.
LaSalle Parish Sheriff Carl Smith said that deputies had increased patrols in the area amid concerns over the safety of the defendants' families.
David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, last week announced his support for Jena's white residents, who voted overwhelmingly for him when he ran unsuccessfully for Louisiana governor in 1991.
"There is a major white supremacist backlash building," said Mark Potok, a hate-group expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group in Montgomery, Ala. "I also think it's more widespread than may be obvious to most people. It's not only neo-nazis and Klansmen -- you expect this kind of reaction from them."
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