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Jena rally moves race into presidential race

BY MARTIN C. EVANS | martin.evans@newsday.com

September 21, 2007

WASHINGTON - With images of 1960s-style protests being aired from a Deep South town Thursday, the Jena 6 case involving black teenagers arrested for beating a white schoolmate has tossed a political hand grenade into the race for the White House.

It is one that Democratic front-runners Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama -- whose party has traditionally depended on a civil rights agenda more than Republicans -- have been slow to pick up, analysts say.

Clinton, who tops all Democrats in polls, risks stumbling should she directly challenge U.S. citizens to ponder racial inequity. Nor can Obama, who has been buoyed by support from liberal whites, risk being seen as racially polarizing, as were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in their presidential bids.

The political debate comes as thousands of people, led by Sharpton and Jackson, traveled to Jena, La., yesterday to protest what many blacks see as the unjust arrest of six black youths, who were charged with attempted murder for attacking a white youth.

Neither Obama nor Clinton attended the rally, which ended at the local high school, where racial confrontations began last September. That month, three white students hung nooses from a "whites only" tree after black students expressed a desire to sit under it.

Obama's campaign released a statement Thursday saying: "The thousands of Americans from every race and region who have descended on this small Louisiana town carry forth the legacy of all those who sat at lunch counters and took freedom rides to strike a blow against injustice wherever it may exist."

Clinton, who has said she is "very worried about what is happening in Jena," did not comment on the rally. Her campaign issued a statement last night saying that "she has been very clear about her views on the Jena 6 matter."

Despite their responses, both heavyweights have not adequately addressed the case, some observers say.

Republicans have also taken a low profile. President George W. Bush addressed the tensions for the first time Thursday, saying, "The events in Louisiana have saddened me. All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice."

The Jena 6 case has drawn criticism because even though there were a series of confrontations between whites and blacks after the tree incident -- including one in which a white youth menaced blacks with a shotgun -- no whites were charged. In June, a black teen was tried as an adult in the beating of the white youth and convicted by an all-white jury. The Jena case, observers say, illustrates the need for political response.

"I feel they [Clinton and Obama] are intimidated and don't want to wade into the racial swamp of how you characterize this issue with respect to race relations," said Ron Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist.

Michael Fauntroy, an assistant professor of public policy at Virginia's George Mason University, said while other issues are more readily discussed, race remains "uncomfortable."

Although an appeals court overturned the conviction Sept. 14, neither Clinton nor Obama addressed the issue until Obama released a statement Sept. 10, saying, "when nooses are being hung in high schools in the 21st century, it's a tragedy."

Two days later, Clinton released one, saying, in part: "I do not condone violence of any kind, but this situation raises very serious questions of injustice and inequity."