Community leaders, radio talkshow hosts, social activists, and several political figures are scheduled to march in Washington, D.C. on November 16th in response to numerous hate crimes and racially insensitive incidents throughout the year.

Energized by the Jena-6 case, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders are urging Black Americans to speak out against hate crimes and support the movement by taking action. They are also asking the federal government to intervene in local issues of bigotry and protect Black American.

The Jena 6 case gained national recognition in late August 2007 when Mychal Bell, 16, a former Jena High School football star faced 100 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder for the December 2006 beating of a white student. The beating incident followed months of escalating racial tensions at Jena High School which began after white youths hung nooses from a tree in the school's courtyard to taunt Black students.

But the sting of injustice goes beyond Jena:

Over the past year, several communities around the U.S. have seen a rise in provocative imagery and racial taunting aimed towards Blacks. This has community leaders, both Black and white, concerned:

• James Jackson, a 26-year-old black employee of 180 Connect in New York, found a noose hanging in an area of his workplace only accessible to his boss and manager -- both of whom are white.
• A noose was hung from the door of Madonna Constantine, 44, an African-American professor of psychology and education at the Teachers College of Columbia University in New York.
• A 6-inch string tied as a noose was found in an African-American Coast Guard cadet's sea bag in July while he was serving aboard the a Coast Guard ship.
• Probably most disturbing is the case of Megan Williams, a 20-year Black woman from West Virginia who was kidnapped, tortured and sexually assaulted for at least a week by six white men and women. According to Logan County Sheriff's officials, the six suspects raped Williams, forced her to eat rat and dog feces, made her drink from a toilet, continually beratted her with the "N-word", and stabbed her multiple times.

"We feel that the federal government has failed to intervene in the cases of hate crimes — swastikas and nooses," Sharpton said during a news conference in Atlanta. "Since the federal government won't come to the people, we're going to bring the people to the federal government."

Sharpton's National Action Network and other community organizations will march in Washington, D.C. on Friday, November 16th, 12:00 noon, at the United States Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

Citizens who wish to get involved and make a difference can sign up for the Washington March here: National Action Network - March On Washington.

You may also call (646) 417-7086, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Leave your name, address and telephone number to register for the event.

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