Free the Jena 6

     It began just like a typical day in any high school. A bunch of students decided to sit under a tree and enjoy the shade. It ended in 6 students being charged with attempted murder. It seems the tree under which several black students sat under was, with the schools knowledge designated as a white’s only area. The day after the black teenagers sat under the tree in question, someone hung; several hang men nooses from it. This led to stirred up racial tension that ended up in a schoolyard fight which resulted in a white student ending up with a concussion and bruises. At which point the Jena D.A. charged 6 black students with attempted murder.

   Jena, a small town deep in the heart of Louisiana, has now become a focal point in the war against racism. The white residents support the D.A. and say this has nothing to do with race. Yet, when the fact that a staggering sixty percent of Jena residents voted for David Duke an admitted white supremacist and former KKK grand wizard in his bid to the Louisiana House of Representatives, one has to take those denials and statements with a grain of salt.

  The District Attorney, Reed Walters, once addressed black students at the school and told them all he could "end their life with a stroke of the pen." This alone should make any rational and just individual weary of the justice system in Jena Louisiana. There have been other incidents in which black and white students have clashed yet, in those incidents the D.A. chose not to take action or simply chose only to charge those of color.

Take for example an episode last October in which a white student pulled a gun on a group of black students. The black students were able to disarm the white student and reported the incident to the police. The police and D.A. charged the black students with assault and robbery of the gun and no charges were ever filed against the white student. Sounds like the justice system in this backwoods of a town is still fighting the civil rights war.

If these teenagers are convicted of attempted murder they can be sent to prison for a combined 100 years or more and all because they choose to sit under a tree. Now we know that true equality under the law is slow to catch on in some parts of our great country. What is needed now, is a movement in which those in power take a look at this injustice and use their influence and money to help these young men. But I guess all those that cried and protested so much for the likes of Karla Fay Tucker are not too interested when it comes to a young black teenager.