MONROE, La., Sept. 21, 2007, 12:00 a.m. - Thousands of people, including contingents of college students from Washington, D.C. New York City, Houston, Texas, Jackson, Miss., arrived in Jena, La., to press for justice for six Black high school students, now known as the Jena Six, who face criminal charges for a school yard brawl with white students.

The crowd included 50 students from Howard University.

The Jena Six were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Supporters of the Jena Six dubbed the event the National day of Action. Thousands descended upon Jena to participate in a rally and march, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton, to help secure justice for the black students. 

Among the groups who supported the rally were the Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party, ACLU, ColorofChange.org, The Final Call Newspaper, The Community Defender, NAACP, Left Turn Magazine, Louisiana Justice Institute, Interfaith Worker Justice, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Common Ground Health Clinic, The Michael Baisden Show, Malcolm X Grassroots, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, INCITE Women of Color against Violence, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights, and many more.

Numerous published accounts have appeared in newspapers around the country and in the foreign press of the Jena Six story, which recalls the Jim Crow era when white judges, lawyers and all-white juries.

Several racially charged incidents began last fall after two black high school students sat beneath a tree in the school yard where whites normally congregated. One black student reportedly had asked the principal for permission to sit beneath the tree and was told he could sit wherever he wanted to sit. So he did. The next day three nooses were found hanging from the tree.  After the superintendent declared that the nooses were a just “prank” more black students sat under the tree in protest. Then the District Attorney went to Jena High School and during an assembly singled out the black students, demanding that the protest end and telling them “I can be your best friend or your worst enemy…I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen.”

What followed was a series of white on black incidents of violence over the next couple of months. On November 30 the main academic building at Jena High School was burned down. It is still unknown how it started. Later that week a white student beat up a black student at a party.