Little La. Town Gears Up for Big Protest
Published: 9/20/07, 12:45 AM EDT
By MARY FOSTER
JENA, La. (AP) - The streets around this tiny town's courthouse began filling with protesters Wednesday, a day ahead of a planned march in support of six black teenagers jailed in the December beating of a white classmate.
Thursday's march was expected to draw thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people, dwarfing Jena's population of about 3,500. Participants said they hoped to rekindle the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"This is the first time I've done anything like this, on this magnitude at least," said Nathaniel Ford, 47, a computer technician who traveled from Richmond, Va.
At the center of the protests is a group of black teenagers who have come to be called the Jena Six.
Months after declining to charge three white high school students who were briefly suspended for hanging nooses in a tree, local prosecutors charged five of the six with attempted second-degree murder in the beating of a white student. The sixth defendant's case is sealed because he is charged as a juvenile.
http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7814&eeid=5400965&_sitecat=1522&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=0&ck=&ch=ne