The March to Jena

In 1965, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African-American woman, sat in the front of a bus and refused to give up her seat. In her autobiography, My Story, Parks recalled that she was simply “tired of giving in.” A police officer arrested her for her actions, but Parks’ peaceful protest helped spark a civil rights movement. The rest is history.

Since Parks’ protest, equal rights and opportunity have been indoctrinated into America society through legislation, affirmative action, and desegregation. History may be repeating itself, however.

In August 2006, at Jena High School in Jena, La., three nooses were hung on a “whites-only” tree. This occurred after a black student asked the school’s vice principal if he and his friends could sit under the tree. Three white students were suspended, but were not criminally charged.

After a number of racially driven incidents, a group of six black teenagers, now known as the Jena Six, were charged with beating their white schoolmate Justin Barker on December 4, 2006. Barker was reportedly knocked unconscious, and his face was bloodied and swollen. Barker still attended a school function the same night of the beating.

Seventeen-year-old Mychal Bell was the first to be tried. Bell was a successful and talented student athlete. He had already received offers to play Division I football for schools like Louisiana State University and Mississippi State.

He was originally charged with attempted murder, but that charge was reduced to aggravated battery and conspiracy. After much debate, it was decided that Bell should have been tried as a juvenile. He was imprisoned for almost 10 months, and was finally released on September 27, 2007 after providing bail. Despite his release, the case is not over for Bell, whose retrial will begin on December 6, 2007.

For the past few months, college campuses across the country have actively protested against the treatment of the Jena Six.

The Internet has been extremely popular and resourceful to college students, as most students have little money and financial resources. Using Facebook, students have created and organized events on campus such as open discussions, petition signings, and protests on the Jena Six incident. Students have even used the site to coordinate days to wear certain color shirts that represent a certain opinion or idea, or simply supportive shirts with “Free the Jena Six” written on them.

“Many people actually check their Facebook to know what’s going on in the world,” Ithaca College sophomore Zaneta Clarke says. “It’s somewhat unfortunate, but it’s true… Many people found out about the Jena Six incident just from Facebook. I know I did.”

Yet some people still felt the need to expand their activism beyond Facebook and the Internet. The case sparked tremendous protests by those who felt that the arrests and charges were racially discriminatory and unfair.

On September 20, more than 15,000 demonstrators swarmed Jena to rally against the unjustified treatment of the Jena Six in Jena. During the demonstration, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the demonstration’s organizer, told people outside of a nearby courthouse “we will not stop marching until justice runs down like waters.”

The demonstration, one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in years, was certainly not limited to protesters from the South. During that same day, similar protests were held in other cities such as New York., Los Angeles and Cleveland.

Many of the college students protesting the incident became involved because they could personally relate to them, due to the age closeness. Students of color were especially reactant towards the incident.

At the University of Virginia, students held a vigil and walk out in response to the Jena Six incident. Students wore black or green shirts, both signifying protests supporting the Jena Six. Families of the Jena Six informed the media that protestors should wear black to signify their support. Green was also worn to represent new beginnings.

Five University of Virginia students and three Virginia Commonwealth University students traveled to Jena to participate in the primary protest.

UVA freshman Nureya Angelique, who helped plan the trip to Jena, says that she first heard about the protest from her local hometown NAACP chapter. She originally thought that her college would plan some type of event where students could travel together with faculty to protest the Jena Six incident. When that didn’t happen, Angelique decided to pursue a trip herself, but says it was difficult to plan because she wasn’t familiar with trip planning at UVA.

Administrators were not encouraging, claiming it would be impossible to plan such a trip in four weeks. Angelique didn’t have enough money, people showing interest, or student clubs or organizations formally supporting her by showing their strong interest in going on the trip.

“I was personally determined to go and would not have minded going by myself,” Angelique says. “I set up a Facebook group as soon as I could, and I had a lot of feedback from people who were interested.”

Eventually, UVA’s Office of African American Affairs encouraged her to make the trip happen. The office told her that she did not need the school’s approval to go and could simply rent a form of transportation. Many people dropped out and only a few were still interested in going on the trip, however.

CNN and the New York Times claimed this is the first time since the 1960s that a significant percentage of college students have rallied around a cause. Anita L. Allen, Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, felt there are far more important things students should be protesting about. Allen is an expert on privacy law and contemporary ethics, and has spoken on various media networks such as BBC. Allen explained that she did not think it was extremely important for students to be participating in rallies and protests against the outcomes surrounding the Jena Six.

“I believe the case has gotten a lot of attention and the attention it deserves, but I believe there are other matters extremely important that would benefit from student energies,” said Allen. “This would include problems like the war in Iraq, which has taken the lives of a disproportionate number of men and women of color, and the fact that police are shooting mentally ill teenagers rather than subduing them and getting them medical care.”

Allen says she wishes young people would become engaged in other issues of social injustice, such as the prisons systems, sentencing disparities, and the death penalty.

Angelique feels that all these different issues are extremely important. However, she felt that these issues naturally don’t receive enough media attention to make people want to stand up. The Jena Six have provoked students to create change, but only recently did most learn about the problem.

“So we have an issue, we work hard to unify, and now we should have protested something else?” Angelique says. “We attacked the Jena Six issue before it became bigger. If that’s not worth fighting for, I don’t know what is.”

Angelique believes that protesting is extremely important for college students to do. She feels that although the Jena Six is a specific case displaying racism, if students do not participate in rallies and demonstrations, the government and other citizens will harm minorities and take advantage of this.

“It reminded us that as college students we could join a common cause and make a huge impact,” says Angelique. “It also reminded minorities that we are still in a struggle. This was not only my chance, but a chance for other students, other people of every race, to stand up for what we believe in.”