JENA, La. — About 50 white separatists protested the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday in this tiny town, which was thrust into the spotlight months ago by 20,000 demonstrators who claimed prosecutors discriminated against blacks.
Police separated participants in the “pro-majority” rally, organized by the Learned, Miss.-based Nationalist Movement, from a racially mixed group of about 100 counterdemonstrators outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse. There was one arrest, of a counterdemonstrator, but no violence.
Chants of “No KKK” from the mostly college-age counterdemonstrators were met with a chant from the separatists that contained a racial epithet.
At one point, dozens of state police forced back about 10 people, dressed in New Black Panther uniforms, who had gathered around a podium where the white separatist group’s leader, Richard Barrett, was to speak.
One man who broke away from that group was arrested and booked on charges of battery on a police officer and resisting arrest; authorities identified him as William Winchester Jr. of New Orleans and said he was a member of the New Black Panthers. Members of the group at the scene declined to comment.
Race relations in Jena, population about 2,800, have been in the news ever since six black teenagers were arrested in the beating of a white classmate at Jena High School in December 2006.
About 20,000 people peacefully marched in support of the so-called Jena Six in September, and Monday’s demonstration was organized in opposition to the teenagers and the King holiday.
Five of the black teens were originally charged with attempted murder, leading to accusations that they were being prosecuted harshly because of their race. Charges have since been reduced.
Critics of the prosecutor have noted that months before the beating, no charges were filed against three white students accused of hanging nooses — seen as signs of racial intimidation — in a tree at the high school. The prosecutor has said that the noose hangings, while “abhorrent,” violated no state law.
Many Jena residents said that coverage of the controversy last year unfairly portrayed them as racists and that Barrett’s group brought renewed unwanted attention. Only when faced with a lawsuit did the town drop a requirement that the Nationalists post a $10,000 security bond for a permit.
Almost all the demonstrators and counterdemonstrators appeared to be from outside of Jena.
“I’d like to see more people from Jena here,” said George Ferguson, a local resident who wore a T-shirt reading “Justice for Justin,” referring to Justin Barker, the white teen beaten in the school attack. “I haven’t seen anyone else I know.”
A few locals, black and white, watched from the sidelines.
“I wanted to see what was going on. I’ve heard a lot about it,” said Charles Bailey, a white 58-year-old Jena resident. “It looks like a big waste of my tax money.”
