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White Separatist Group Stages Rally In Jena

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The Associated Press

Published: January 22, 2008

JENA, La. - About 50 white separatists protested the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday Monday in this tiny town, which was thrust into the spotlight months ago by 20,000 demonstrators who claimed prosecutors discriminated against blacks.

Police separated participants in the "pro-majority" rally that was organized by the Learned, Miss.-based Nationalist Movement from a racially mixed group of about 100 counter-demonstrators outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse.

There was no violence and one arrest, a counter-demonstrator.

Chants of "No KKK" from the mostly college-age counter-demonstrators were met with a chant from separatists that contained a racial epithet.

At one point, dozens of state police forced back about 10 people, dressed in New Black Panther uniforms, who had gathered around a podium where separatist group leader Richard Barrett was to speak.

One man who broke away from that group was arrested and charged with battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Authorities identified him as William Winchester Jr. of New Orleans and said he was a member of the New Black Panthers. Members of the group at the scene declined comment.

Race relations in Jena (population about 2,800) have been in the news ever since six black teenagers were arrested in the beating of a white classmate at Jena High School in December 2006.

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