"A Force to be Reckoned With"

Last week was really worth repeating and again this week I will reiterate the impact and significance of the massive crusade in Jena.

White folk need not underestimate the power of Black people, not when one of our own has fallen victim to the ugly head of racism, not when it comes to buying power and not when it comes to voting power.

Another aspect of Black power that was clearly demonstrated in Jena was the power of the Black media and Black press.

Michael Baisden proved that a voice of reason heard loud and clear did not fall on deaf ears as Blacks responded with the kind of force that will send shivers down the spine of White America.

The Sentinel did something that has not been done by other Black newspapers, but what probably can’t be done because of economic reasons.

The Sentinel sent a team of reporters to Jena who fed blogs to our website daily, keeping our community here informed on the moment-to-moment events in Jena.

Normally this kind of reporting is done by White publications which are empowered with the advertising dollars to do so, but what we proved here at the Sentinel, that if it is important to Black people, it’s important to us and we will spare no cost in getting there and providing our readers with insightful information.

Everywhere I’ve been during the past week, most of the conversation has been about Jena and the Black teenage boy who remains jailed there.

So, while we outnumbered the town of 3,000 population with a crowd of 50,000 people decorated in Black, we did not complete the mission of making sure that we got him out. Nonetheless the pressure is on for them to let him out and if we need go back we’ll do it again.

I welcome your comments and with Taste of Soul coming in a couple of weeks we have plenty to talk about.

Sincerely,
Danny J. Bakewell, Jr.
President & Executive Editor

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