The Jena Six

Oi, I am behind the time when it comes to the news. I only just heard about the Jena Six, the six black teenagers who are convicted of beating up a white classmate. While I was in my Participation in Government class, this topic came up and it seems like there are quite a few versions of this story floating around in the news. Since I was only recently introduced to the story, I don’t know which version seems more true. I just took everything in on the same playing ground.

Here’s some background information for those who have never heard about it:

Before three nooses were hung from a tree on the campus of Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, last summer, most people had never heard of the small Southern town (population 3,000). But after a series of racially charged incidents that harkened back to the violent, divisive pre-civil rights era, the world’s attention has turned to Jena, which will be the site of a large protest Thursday in support of a half-dozen black teens who have been dubbed the “Jena Six.”

The troubles began in summer 2006, when a black student, Kenneth Purvis, asked the school’s principal during an August assembly if he could sit under the “white tree,” a large, shady tree on campus that had traditionally been a hangout for white students. The principal said students could sit wherever they wanted, but the next morning, three nooses were discovered hanging from the tree. The students responsible were found and expulsion was recommended by the principal, but LaSalle Parish Schools Superintendent Roy Breithaupt disagreed and reduced the punishment to three days of in-school suspension, saying the noose hanging seemed more like a prank than a threat.

Apparently angered by the reduced punishment, a group of black students organized a sit-in under the tree in September that was dispersed by police, who had already responded to several calls of fights between black and white students after the noose incident. A school assembly that month, at which white and black students pointedly sat on opposite sides, didn’t help matters, as a local district attorney — upset at his inability to calm the room down — reportedly glared at the side of the room where the black students were sitting, held up a pen and said, “with one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear.”

Tensions continued to mount and police were called in to patrol the halls of the school, which was put on total lockdown the week of September 8, 2006. Several days later, the school board rejected a request by some black students to address the issues plaguing the school, saying they felt the noose incident had been resolved satisfactorily.

Things were relatively quiet for much of the rest of September and October, mostly due to the soaring fortunes of the football team, whose winning streak was helped by the efforts of some key black players. But shortly after the season ended on November 30, a fire burned down the main academic building of Jena High School in what was believed to be arson, with blacks pointing the finger at whites and vice versa.

The fire preceded a series of ugly racial conflicts that escalated tensions in the town. The night after the fire, then-16-year-old Robert Bailey Jr. was attacked and beaten when he and some black friends attempted to enter a party that was mostly attended by whites. On December 2, Bailey got into a verbal altercation with a white student who had also attended the party, with the white teen running to his truck and pulling out a shotgun. Bailey and his friends chased the teen and took the gun away, leading to charges of theft of a firearm, second-degree robbery and disturbing the peace for Bailey, while the student who pulled the weapon was not charged at all.

At Jena High School that Monday, December 4, a white student, Justin Barker, 17, was allegedly overheard bragging to friends about how Bailey had been whipped by a white man. When he stepped into the school’s courtyard, Barker was attacked by a group of black students who knocked Barker out with one punch and then kicked him in the head repeatedly. He was treated and released from a local hospital and attended a party later that night, while the six were arrested and all but the 14-year-old charged as adults.

- Source

When I first heard the story, I thought that the six children getting put on trial as adults was okay–after all, it was a violent act. However, after I heard that the child who was beaten was released from the hospital after one day and attended a party later that day, the sentence seemed too strong.

Many people say that all these trials were influenced by racism. I’m unsure about that. It may be, but it doesn’t have to be. From what I read, it also seems as if the white victim’s father was friends with a member of the jury who was hearing the case. In this case, no matter if someone was white or black or yellow or red, the friend influence would be stronger.

But in any case, I think that the trials were unfair as well. Although, I really have no opinion on the nooses that the white children apparently hung. I know that nooses are a terrible reminder of the past, but I didn’t think hanging rope on a tree was that bad. I don’t know how the nooses looked like, so I don’t know if it can be considered a hate crime or a prank.