Report: NAACP Spent More on Internal Jena Six Activities Than on Youths’ Defense Funds

By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart

Mychal Bell went to his prom this spring in Monroe, Louisiana. He’s working a job and practicing with the football team at Carroll High School in the hopes of getting approval from the state’s high school athletic association to play this fall.

And if things go well, he hopes to be released soon from juvenile court supervision, his lawyer said.

For Bell, the only one of six Louisiana teens dubbed the Jena Six to be sentenced following a 2006 fight with a white classmate, some things in life are returning to normal. But challenges still are ahead.

Attorneys for the five remaining Jena youths still are working to have the judge presiding in the matter removed. And on another front, concerns are being circulated in the blogosphere about the efficiency of fundraising to support the defense of the teens as more money is needed to continue the next phase.

On two blogs -- Jack & Jill Politics and the Jena Six Blog -- questions are being raised about a NAACP report that shows it spent more than half the money raised for the Jena youths' defense on internal costs related to the organization's activities there.

Report: NAACP Spent More on Internal Jena Six Activities Than on Youths’ Defense Funds....