I hadn't been following the Jena 6 case, but after reading this, I will be. The case involves six Black high school students on trial for their lives, charged with attempted murder for a fight that broke out after white students hung nooses from a tree at the 85% white high school where the students attended, this after the Black students decided to sit under the normally "white students only" tree. After the nooses were hung, a handful of white students were mildly disciplined. But the incident touched off several racial skirmishes in the town of Jena, including a Black student beaten up when he showed up to a white only party, and a white young man pulling a shotgun on some black students at a convenience store. The final incident, in which the six black students allegedly jumped a white teen alleged to have been friends with with the noose hangers, is what has resulted in the charges. Essentially, the six Black defendants are facing decades in prison for a schoolyard brawl.
The case is like a blast from the 1950s, and presents an ugly face of the South that persists to this day. Some of the charges have been reduced in the case, but it drags on still. The NAACP is also on the case.
Labels: civil rights, injustice, Jena 6 |
