More than 100 Austinites rallied on the UT campus Thursday to demand the release of six black students in Louisiana arrested on assault charges in connection with a school fight. The march was part of one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in recent history, with protests in major cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia and a march of more than 20,000 in Jena, where the students are being held.
The story of the students, now known nationwide as the Jena 6, is one that will most likely give Americans a feeling of déjà vu, resurrecting the ghosts of segregation, racial violence, and Jim Crow-era justice. It began when black students defied informal segregation at Jena High School by sitting under a tree in the school yard that was traditionally a gathering place for white students. Nooses appeared in the tree the next morning, and this was followed by a series of escalating incidents culminating in the beating of white student Justin Barker. After the beating, six black students were arrested on charges of attempted second-degree murder; however, the charges were reduced to assault and conspiracy in response to widespread public outrage.
Local organizer Courtney Morris said the treatment of the so-called Jena 6 illustrates how a separate justice system for blacks and whites still exists. Protesters say that in the events leading up to the beating, there were several instances where whites committed crimes, including the noose incident, and received little more than a slap on the wrist.
The students who were responsible for hanging the nooses in the tree were given three days of in-school suspension, despite their actions, which FBI investigators said “had all the markings of a hate crime.” And on the weekend prior to the beating, Robert Bailey, one of the six, was beaten severely after he and other black students attempted to enter a party. The man responsible was charged with battery but immediately released on probation.
Then, just a few days before the fight, Bailey had a confrontation with Barker at a local convenience store, during which Barker pulled out a shotgun. Bailey and his friends wrestled the gun from Barker’s hand and called the police, only to be arrested for theft of a firearm.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and others are calling for a civil rights investigation of Jena District Attorney Reed Walters, alleging racism in his prosecution of the six. After a series of interracial fights followed the noose incident, the school held an assembly at which Walters spoke. He urged students to stop “fussing” over an “innocent prank,” and several witnesses recall him telling students he could be their best friend or worst enemy and that “with one stroke of my pen, I could make your lives disappear.”
Protesters demanded that all charges against the Jena 6 be dropped and that the matter be handled as a disciplinary problem. “There should be some kind of punishment, but it should be within the school system. In my school we had fights, but no one ever got charged with attempted murder,” said UT’s Black Student Alliance President Chad Stanton.
Morris said although getting the charges reduced was a minor victory, protests won’t stop until all of the charges are dropped. “You have to know when you’re being handed concessions. There’s a difference between that and justice. We want justice.”
This article appears in September 28 • 2007.