David Bowie
*On this date in 2007, David Bowie donated $10,000 to a legal defense fund for the 'Jena Six.' The Jena Six are six black teens charged in an alleged attack on a white classmate in the central Louisiana town of Jena.
The NAACP announced the white-British rocker's donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund as thousands of protesters were expected to march through Jena in defense of Mychal Bell and five other teens. "There is clearly a separate and unequal judicial process going on in the town of Jena," Bowie said in an e-mail statement. "A donation to the Jena Six Legal Defense Fund is my small gesture indicating my belief that a wrongful charge and sentence should be prevented."
Bell was found guilty of second-degree battery charges on June 28, 2007, by a six-member, all-white jury. Before the case was overturned by the state 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal, his sentencing had been set for September 19th. The court said Bell, who was 16 during the alleged December 2006 beating, shouldn't have been tried as an adult. Bell remains in jail because he cannot post a $90,000 bond.
"We are gratified that rock star David Bowie was moved to donate to the NAACP's Jena campaign," National Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement. "We hope others will join him."
