Noose Lesson Gone Bad at Grambling?

The editor of the Grambling State University student newspaper said university president Horace Judson censored the paper by ordering that a story and photos of a race lesson at an on-campus elementary school be removed from its Web site. De’Eric Henry said Monday that The Gramblinite is caught in Judson’s efforts to investigate the lesson on racism, which occurred Sept. 20. During the lesson on racism, a noose was placed around a child’s neck at the Grambling-run Alma J. Brown Elementary School. The school, like the university, is predominantly black. At least one photo shows a woman lifting in her arms a young female student who has a rope around her neck.

The lesson for kindergarten and first-grade students at Alma J. Brown Elementary was racism, with teachers explaining the symbolism of a noose and allowing children to carry shackles and chains, also symbols of oppression, The Gramblinite reported. The students also held a march for equality at the school. Some carried signs supporting the Jena teens.

A woman identified as Irene Booker wrote in a comment posted at the newspaper’s Web site Friday that it was a “(safe) demonstration” meant to show what the rope symbolized to blacks. The posting, in response to a reader’s comment commending the staff for teaching kids about injustice, goes on to say that the rope was around the neck of her granddaughter, whom she said she was holding.

“In order to understand racism, one must experience it to make a connection,” the posting read, adding that many students didn’t understand the “intimidation of the noose.”

Source WPLG

GRAMBLING, La. — Officials at Grambling State University were meeting Monday after the school newspaper ran photographs of adults at a campus-run elementary school putting a noose around at least one child’s neck.

Kindergarten and first-grade students at Alma J. Brown Elementary School were being taught why nooses are a symbol of racism, an article from the historically black university’s student newspaper said.

The article said the children also were being taught about the “Jena Six” — black high-school students who are accused of beating a white schoolmate. Court proceedings brought about 20,000 to 25,000 people to Jena, about 70 miles from Grambling, for a civil rights march in September.

A press release posted on the Gramblinite’s Web site said three photographs from the event were removed after a staff conference call. Ten others were re-posted to the site Monday after the university’s president ordered the removal of all the photos and the story over the weekend, according to the Gramblinite press release.

Source: FOX