A friend in Louisiana told about the Jena Six. The story hasn’t gotten much national coverage but may soon.
At the beginning of the 2006 school year, two black students at the predominantly white Jena High School (in Jena, LA) requested permission from the administration to sit under the “whites-only” tree during lunch. The next day, three nooses swung from the tree’s branches. It sparked a series of violence in the small central Louisiana town of 2,900 – of which 85 percent are white.
In December 2006, six black high school students were arrested after a school fight in which a white student was beaten and suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The six black students were charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy. They face up to 100 years in prison without parole. The Jena Six, as they have come to be known, range in age from 15 to 17 years old.
This July, an all-white jury took less than two days to convict 17 year-old Mychal Bell, the first of the Jena Six to go on trial. He was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy charges and now faces up to 22 years in prison. His sentence hearing is on Sept. 20.