In the present day I think very little of racism and the treatment of blacks in the United States. I think the whole entire nation felt this way until the Jena 6 trial captured national news coverage. I made me feel horrible to think that racism was still happening to this day, a mere 139 years since the 13, 14, and 15 amendments created equal rights for African Americans. I want to explain what happened in this case and how I feel about the case and give my own opinion of what should happen in the ruling.

Jena is a small town in Louisiana which had a mixture of many races living in it. The place where the dispute began was at Jena High School. During the school day reports said that whites and blacks rarely sat together. The white students sat under a tree in the school’s courtyard and named it “the white tree”. Black students were said to typically sit in the auditorium and barely ever go to the white tree. On August 24, 2007 the principle was asked by a black freshman student if he could sit under the “white tree” during a school assembly. Unconcerned, the principle said that anybody he could sit anywhere he wanted to. In the morning after the assembly, two nooses were said to be hanging from the white tree. The principle eventually discovered who hung the nooses from the tree, and recommended to the board for them to be expelled. The board however, decided to lower the punishment. The white students were said to have been put into an alternative school for nine days were they spent 3 weeks of in-school suspension, attended every Saturday Detention, and attended Discipline Court. Before they were allowed back in the school they had a mental evaluation from the school’s Crisis Management procedures. The principle did not think it was a serious event and considered it to be a bad prank. However, due to the next events black residents of Jena considered it to be a serious form of racism.

After the noose incident, many interracial brawls occurred between Jena High School’s black and white students. The fighting made the school’s principle call an emergency assembly which J. Reed Walters, the La Salle District Attorney spoke at. He put a strict warning out that if any one of the school students caused any more problems, that he had the power to erase their life. As hyped up as the situation was, the black students felt that Walters was focusing on them when he spoke. Other eyewitnesses said that this was not the case.
Tensions began to get tight as the days went on. These were some of what went on in Jena after the assembly on September 6, 2006.

September 10, 2006- The school board of Jena High School rejected a request by families of black students to discuss the current events. The board felt that it would get a lot of complaints of how the noose incident was handled.

November 30, 2006- A wing of Jena High school was burned and then latter demolished. Arsonists which were never identified were suspected to be the culprits of the fire.

December 1, 2006- A group of black students, including Robert Bailey Jr., and a white student erupts outside a party. After the party supervisor kicked those students out of the party another fight occurred between the group of black students and a group of white men. The police were called and Justin Sloan, a white man, was convicted of simple battery for his role in the fight and was put on probation.

Decmber 2, 2006- (story 1) A group of black students including Robert Bailey is confronted by a group of white men with a shotgun outside a convenient store. Bailey and his friends manage to take the gun and run away. (story 2) Bailey and his friends attack a group of white men at a convenient store. One of the white students grabs the shotgun in self defense. The black students wrestle the gun away from the man and then run away.

Finally on December 4, 2006, Justin Baker, a white student at Jena High school, was assaulted. He was hit on the back of the head and knocked down by a black student. According to the eyewitnesses, a group of six black students continually kicked him. Baker was kicked into a state of unconsciousness.

The trial for the attack charged five of the six black students, including Bailey to second-degree murder. The sixth student was charged as a juvenile because he was fourteen.
Although I will not go into the trial details, I will describe to you the response of the trial.
When the trial was occurring, many black protesters from around the United States accused the trail as being a racially charged decision. The judge and workers in the justice department said that it had nothing to do with the decision. This is the point that every body heard on the various news networks.

I personally think that the “Jena 6” trial was handled appropriately. I did not think that race was taken in account in the trial. The only thing that might be able to be under dispute was the adult treatment some of the “Jena Six” got. To me the trial would have happened the same way if white men beat up Barker. I am assuming that the jury made a fair decision in the trial based on the evidence presented. Let us not forget that the “Jena 6” did beat a man unconscious. No matter if you are white black, or blue, if you beat up a person you will have a criminal charge against you. As a person watching and reading the news, I do not get the best of details but I felt that nothing should have been done differently in this case.

I don’t feel that I am racist in any way by thinking this. I would never disrespect or hurt anyone based on their race, or ethnicity. In my eyes, everyone should be treated equally, and if a white man beated another white man to unconsciousness I would give him the same charge. I would like to hear your opinion on this controversial debate that almost seems unbelievable.