Hundreds of people – young and old, black and white – gathered at a Five Points cafe Thursday night to show their support for six black youths they feel are being treated unfairly by the justice system in Jena, La.
They sang and listened to speeches. Poets and spoken-word artists performed. At event’s end, organizers asked for donations, and soon they had collected more than $1,800 to help the Louisiana youths, dubbed the Jena Six.
But those who spoke at Blackberries cafe in Denver Thursday night used the rally to transcend the events in Jena by also focusing on problems closer to home and by encouraging people at the rally to get involved with the political process.
“This country’s soil is soaked in injustice,” said Jeff Fard, founder of Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center. “The difference with this situation is people put light on it.”
The rally mirrored others taking place in cities across the country and occurred on the same day tens of thousands of protesters marched through Jena. But organizers of Denver’s rally said they didn’t know what to expect Thursday evening.
The idea for the rally began a few days ago in discussions among a group of artists and activists. The organizers promoted the event through word of mouth, on the Internet and in fliers.
Come Thursday evening, about 350 people showed up, overflowing the cafe. Many had to stand outside.
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Rene Marie, one of the rally’s organizers. “What a great outpouring of community spirit. What I loved about it is there was so much diversity here.”
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Craig said he came to the rally because he didn’t agree with officials’ decision to prosecute the Jena Six so harshly.
“I think this is truly inspirational because it’s showing how people are beginning to take notice,” said Craig, a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School. “We’re taking a stand against these unjust, biased decisions that are being made.”
Menola Upshaw, the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Denver branch, agreed.
“It tells me something because here in 2007 I really didn’t think we would have to be fighting something like Jena, La.,” she said.
As the night wore down, people from the audience were invited to come to the microphone and express their thoughts. Some talked about the situation in Jena. Some talked about local situations in which they saw injustice.
“This is not the only issue,” Fard said in closing out the rally. “But this is an opportunity for us to show that we can come together. We need to move beyond black and white. We need to look at right and wrong.”
Or, as Upshaw said as she left the rally and walked into the night, “I’m going to pray that we will have one America and not two Americas.”
Staff writer John Ingold can be reached at 720-929-0898 or jingold@denverpost.com.
