The Jena Six is a group of six african american students who attend a quite racially segregated school in Jena, Louisianna. The school is prominently whites, which is just reflection of their town. In the town of 3,000, about 90% of the students that attend are white, and the other 10% being african american.
There had always been apparent racial discriminations happening around the school and in the town. The students at the school had been known to always segregate themselves during lunch, with the blacks sitting on the bleachers and the whites sitting under a tree outside which came to be known as, "The White Tree."
One day at the school, there was a black freshman who went up to the principal and asked the principle if he could sit under the "White Tree" during a school assembly. The man told his student that he could sit anywhere he wanted, so the african american freshman and a few of his friends sat under that tree. The next day at school, there were nooses hanging from the tree. Although somewhat alarming, the teachers ignored it, thinking that it was not much of a threat, while others thought it should had been filed as a hate crime. The faculty members reported that they saw students of all races playing on the nooses.
The students who are now dubbed the Jena Six are known for the beating of a white boy who attends Jena High School. The Members of the Jena Six include Robert Bailey, 17; Mychal Bell, 16; Carwin Jones,18; Bryant Purvis, 17; Jesse Ray Beard, 14; and Theo Shaw, 17. These six boys were arrested for the assult on Justin Barker with attempted murder and conspiracy. Beard, who was at the time 14 years old, was the only one taken as a juvenille. These students are facing up to 100 years in prison.. without parole.
The beating of Barker sent him to the hospital. He ended up with a concussion and one eye swollen shut, but other than that he was ok. This incident led to a lot of other crimes at the school of Jena though, including hangings, more fights between the races, and even the burning down of the school.
Around the United States, there are mixed feelings on the Jena Six. There are people that think the punishment of the jail time that has been cast onto this group is necessary, and there are others who think that they should be freed. The Jena Six has created what had been called a more recent Civil Rights Movement. This just shows that discrimination is still around. Personally I think that things like this should not happen, and people involved should be punished. Another problem in the Jena Six though was that not all of the information that was released was correct, which just caused more confusion. But in the long run, things like racial discrimination is just silly. All men are created equal, and thats how they should always remain. Everyone has their chance in life, no matter what the color of their skin is shown to be. Nobody should be able to take the chance of acheivement away.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/7/10/the_case_of_the_jena_six
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