Jena, La. – Drawn by a case tinged with one of the most hated symbols of Old South racism – a hangman’s noose tied in an oak tree – thousands of protesters rallied Thursday against what they see as a double standard of prosecution for blacks and whites.
The plight of the so-called Jena Six became a flash point for one of the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.
Old-guard lions such as the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton joined scores of college students bused in from across the nation who said they wanted to make a stand for racial equality just as their parents did in the 1950s and ’60s.
“It’s not just about Jena, but about inequalities and disparities around the country,” said Stephanie Brown, 26, national youth director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who estimated that 2,000 college students were among the throngs of mostly black protesters who overwhelmed this tiny central Louisiana town.
But the teens’ case galvanized demonstrators as few legal cases have in recent years.
The cause of Thursday’s demonstrations dates from Aug. 31, 2006, when a black Jena High School student asked the principal whether blacks could sit under a shade tree that was a frequent gathering place for whites. He was told yes. But nooses appeared in the tree the next day. Three white students were suspended but not criminally prosecuted. LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters said this week that he could find no state law covering the act.
Brown said the Jena case resonates with the college-age crowd because they aren’t much older than the six youths charged. Many of the student protesters had been sharing information about the case through Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking websites.
Jackson, who led a throng of people three blocks long to the courthouse with an American flag resting on his shoulder, likened the demonstration to the marches on Selma and the Montgomery bus boycott. But even he was not entirely sure why Jena became the focal point.
“You can never quite tell,” he said. “Rosa Parks was not the first to sit in the front of the bus. But the sparks hit a dry field.”
The noose incident was followed by fights between blacks and whites, culminating in December’s attack on white student Justin Barker, who was knocked unconscious. According to court testimony, his face was swollen and bloodied, but he was able to attend a school function that same night.
Six black teens were arrested. Five were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder – charges that have since been reduced for four of them. The sixth was booked as a juvenile on sealed charges.
Martin Luther King III, son of the slain civil-rights leader, said punishment of some sort may be in order for the six defendants, but “the justice system isn’t applied the same to all crimes and all people.”
People began massing for the demonstrations before dawn Thursday, jamming the two-lane highway leading into town and parking wherever they could. State police estimated the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000. Organizers believed it drew as many as 50,000.
In Washington, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he would hold hearings on the case, though he did not set a date or say if the prosecutor would be called to testify.
Walters, the district attorney, has usually declined to discuss the case publicly. But on the eve of the demonstrations, he denied the charges against the teens were race-related and lamented that Barker, the victim of the beating, has been reduced to “a footnote” while protesters generate sympathy for his alleged attackers.
President Bush said he understood the emotions and the FBI was monitoring the situation.
“The events in Louisiana have saddened me,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “All of us in America want there to be, you know, fairness when it comes to justice.”
While Jena Six supporters were overwhelmingly black, young whites were also present.
“I think what happened here was disgusting and repulsive to the whole state,” said Mallory Flippo, a white college student from Shreveport. “I think it reflected badly on our state and how it makes it seem we view black people. I don’t feel that way, so I thought I should be here.”
In Jena, many white residents expressed anger at the way news organizations portrayed their town of 3,000 people. “I believe in people standing up for what’s right,” said resident Ricky Coleman, 46, who is white. “What bothers me is this town being labeled racist. I’m not racist.”
Background
On Aug. 31, 2006, a black high school student asked to sit under a tree that white students had reserved as their own. The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree. Three white students were briefly suspended.
In December, a white student was beaten up by six black schoolmates, who were charged with attempted murder, later reduced to offenses such as aggravated battery.
In June, Mychal Bell was found guilty of second-degree battery, but an appeals court said he had been improperly tried as an adult. Bell, now 17, remains in custody while prosecutors decide whether to file new charges in juvenile court.
Thursday’s rally was planned to coincide with the day Bell originally was to have been sentenced.
