Jena Six

People

Robert Bailey; Mychal Bell; Carwin Jones; Bryant Purvis; Jesse Ray Beard; Theo Shaw

The Jena Six case began in August 2006 in Jena, Louisiana, a small town of approximately 3,000 people that was 85% white. At Jena High School, a large shade tree in the courtyard was informally known as the "white tree" because only white students sat beneath it. On August 31, 2006, a Black freshman asked the principal at a school assembly if Black students could sit under the tree. The principal said students could sit wherever they wanted. The next morning, three nooses were found hanging from the tree. The FBI determined the noose hanging "had all the markings of a hate crime." Principal Scott Windham recommended expelling the three white students responsible, but the school board overruled him and reduced the punishment to a three-day in-school suspension, with the superintendent dismissing it as an "adolescent prank." Racial tensions escalated over the following months. In December 2006, a Black student was beaten while trying to attend a party. The next day, a white Jena graduate confronted Black youths with a shotgun; when they wrestled it away, they were arrested while he faced no charges. On December 4, 2006, six Black students assaulted Justin Barker, a white student who had allegedly made racist comments and supported the students who hung the nooses. Barker was treated at an emergency room for a swollen eye and concussion. The six Black students, ranging in age from 14 to 18, were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, which could carry sentences of up to 50 years. Mychal Bell, only 16 years old, was tried as an adult before an all-white jury and convicted of aggravated second-degree battery. The case sparked national outrage over the disparity in treatment: white students received suspensions for hanging nooses (symbols of lynching), while Black students faced decades in prison for a schoolyard fight. On September 20, 2007, between 20,000 and 60,000 protesters descended on Jena in what became the largest civil rights demonstration in decades. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Martin Luther King III led the march, with Sharpton calling it "the beginning of the 21st century civil rights movement." Days before the march, Bell's conviction was overturned because he should have been tried as a juvenile. He ultimately pleaded guilty to battery and served 18 months in a juvenile facility. The other five pleaded no contest to misdemeanor simple battery, paying $500 fines and serving seven days of unsupervised probation. One of the Jena Six, Theo Shaw, was inspired by the experience to become an attorney and was sworn in to the bar in 2019.