On September 20th, 2007 thousands of protesters congregated in the town of Jena, Louisiana to show how outraged they were about the unjust incident that had occurred and what Al Sharpton called the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement. It was estimated that up to 20,000 protesters arrived in Jena which has a population of only 3,000. Jena resident Terry Adams disagreed with any accusations that there might be a black-white divide in the area as she was quoted as saying, “we are not a racial town. We get along with each other, we get along fine. This is something that got out of proportion. It really has.” But if in fact there was no racial tension then this situation would not be the way it is now nor would it have had gotten this out of control if there had been some justice in the issue beforehand.
In August of 2006, a group of black students asked for permission from school administrators to sit under a tree, I know a tree it’s weird but, the reason why they asked was because normally only white students congregate there. The students were told that they could sit under any tree on school grounds. The next day three nooses were found hanging in the same tree and they were put up by three white teens that were briefly suspended from classes but despite the principles recommendation to have them expelled, the students were basically given a slap on the wrist.
Jonny Fryar a member of the LaSalle Parish School Board was quoted as saying that, “the panel felt it took the appropriate action.” He went onto say that, ” I talked to one of the parents, who called me and said their son thought it was a prank and naive to the fact of what it meant and he was sorry.” It sounds like “being naive” is a good enough excuse for the school board and the fact that these students were not expelled is beyond belief.
This incident was almost marked as a hate crime however, a decision was made not to press federal charges because the students were under the age of 18 and they had no prior records. The crime was not associated with any type of group such as the Ku Klux Klan therefore, it didn’t meet federal criteria. On December 4th, 2006 after the nooses were discovered, six teens known as the “Jena 6” were accused of beating Justin Barker a white classmate. The six teens- Mycal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Ray Beard were charged with attempted second- degree murder and conspiracy. However, the charges have now been reduced to battery and conspiracy. However, Bryant Purvis is still awaiting arraignment and charges for Jesse Ray Beard are unavailable since he is a juvenile.
Tina Jones the mother of Bryant Purvis has said, “I hope that the D.A. will wake up and realize that he’s doing the wrong thing, and to release these kids. It’s not equal. The black people get the harsher extent of the law, whereas white people get a slap on the wrist per se. so it is not equal here.” On a positive note however, she said, “we have a long fight ahead of us, and we’ll keep fighting until justice prevails in Jena.” Reverend Jesse Jackson said that, “there’s a Jena in every state.” And to think that it’s 2007 and yes there is still a divide between people of all races. President Bush advised whoever is elected next year to “reach out to the African-American community.” Maybe if President Bush hadn’t been so busy invading another country maybe he could’ve made some time reaching out because we all know how he was when Hurricane Katrina hit.
The Jena six has a lot of support from people all over the United States and keep an eye out for what the outcome of this case is. If you’d like to get more information on the Jenna six case you can visit: http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Jena_Six_Case. Youtube also has a short clip on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuoiZnr4jLY. You can also help out the cause by signing a petition online: http://www.petitiononline.com/aZ51CqmR/petition.html (Thanks Maxim) There is even a group on facebook titled Free the Jena Six
University of Bridgeport
Sunday, July 13, 2025