JENA 6

[AKA2D '91]

The Road to Jena:

www.khoutv.com
KHOU - TV

Instead one group of men stuck out badly.

They were dumped at a gas station in a very small town.

Elmo Parker was one of those men. "Hour two or three, I believe, in
front of a gas station like a bunch of vagabonds."

That's the time he said he spent after being stopped by police in
Louisiana.

In fact, Parker used his cell phone to captured images of Spergeon
Holly on the ground.

Holly didn't know Parker was shooting the until both of them ended up
in Woodworth, Louisiana.

"They're stopping people all along 49, and they have checkpoints up
the street so basically any out of state plates they're following them
for several miles. Black shirts, I don't know if you know but today is
supposed to be a day where everyone wore black where they were going
to show support. Any black shirt that's who they were profiling," said
Parker.

Parker, 21, was driving with two friends when he was pulled over.

Parker's mother, Kim Hudson, warned him not to speed in Louisiana.

Parker says he was going 50.

The police said, 70.

"Being pulled over for a traffic ticket and having your car towed and
being left on the side of the road? That's mighty harsh punishment for
a ticket," said Hudson.

Then Parker says the officer told him his Texas drivers license was
suspended. His mother says it was briefly a year and a half ago.

The officer took Parker's license, impounded his car and he and his
friends got into the tow truck.

"We get about a mile and a half down the road. The tow truck driver
just stops the tow truck, like basically at the edge of the gas
station and was like, this is as far as I can take you. Get out of my
truck," said Parker.

That's where they met Spergeon Holly. Almost exactly the same thing
had happened to him.

"They're trying to discourage people from going to Jena. And they can
physically see you're black they can physically see you have on a
black shirt," said Holly.

An hour up the road, a rally to end racism.

In Woodworth, four Houstonians say their struggle is just beginning.

"I don't know anybody in this town so I basically have to sit here and
wait until somebody drives from Houston," said Holly.

The Woodworth Police Department did not returned our calls made by 11
News.

By the way, both Parker and Holly appear to have valid Texas drivers
licenses.

Holly says he tried to show police his concealed weapons permit, which
you can only get with a valid license, and Parker says he had brought
court paperwork and insurance, proving his license had been reinstated.

Instead the Woodworth police took their licenses, and their cars, away.

I guess it's just a prank?