RWDSU President Calls on La. Gov. to Throw Out Jena 6 Case (9/21/07)

Calling it a "blatant miscarriage of justice" the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union called on Louisiana Governor Kathleen B. Blanco to intervene in the case of the Jena 6. In the case, six African American high school students were charged with aggravated battery and conspiracy following a series of racially charged incidents involving black and white youth in the town of Jena, Louisiana.

"The events leading up to this case, the overzealous prosecution and the extended incarceration of these young men are a moral outrage and a throwback to the Jim Crow era. They should offend everyone's sense of justice, including Governor Blanco's," said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.

"The RWDSU stands with our brothers and sisters in the civil rights movement in demanding justice for the Jena Six -- Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey, Jr., Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and 'John Doe,' the young minor whose name has been withheld. The fact that the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals has tossed out the conviction of Mychal Bell is a step in the right direction," Appelbaum said. The RWDSU president said that Blanco and Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti must "take immediate action to protect the rights of the Jena 6."

"Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' That's why all Americans have a stake in challenging what's happening in Jena."