Judiciary Hearing on Jena 6

October 16, 2007
Blog Post
The Judiciary Committee is currently holding a hearing, "Jena 6 and the Role of Federal Intervention in Hate Crimes and Race-Related Violence in Public Schools." Witnesses include Donald Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana; Lisa Krigsten, Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General; Richard Cohen, President and Chief Executive Officer Southern Poverty Law Center; Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard Law School; Reverend Brian Moran, Pastor of the Jena Antioch Baptist Church and President of the NAACP, Jena Chapter; Reverend Alfred C. Sharpton, President of the National Action Network.

Watch the hearing live via committee webcast or on C Span 3.

Chairman John Conyers gives opening remarks:

Chairman Conyers:

"The development of democracy is a continuing activity, it never stops, there will always be problems. The question in my mind today, is whether, from the particular experience and incident that brings us here, we can move forward."

Chairman Bobby Scott of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, gives opening remarks:

Subcommittee Chairman Scott: "African American families live with grim realities facing their children, at the present rate 1/3 of African American males born today will end up in prison, African American males are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites, and there are racial disparities at every stage of the criminal justice system, especially the juvenile justice system, creating what the Children's Defense Fund calls the 'cradle to prison pipeline' for African American males..."

Reverend Brian Moran, Pastor of the Jena Antioch Baptist Church and President of the NAACP, Jena Chapter, gives testimony:

Reverend Moran:

"We know that justice can be done, but the question is, 'why hasn't it been done?' I am grateful for the opportunity to tell my brief story, which actually is a much larger and longer story. I am hoping you will get the point today that Jena can be a great town, but right now it is a town where two systems of justice exist... and we believe it is no longer acceptable."