JENA, La. — Thousands of protesters from across the United States converged Thursday in Jena, La., a town of 3,000 people, to protest what they say are disproportionately harsh criminal charges against six black teenagers who beat a white youth.
Before dawn, cars and buses began to course down the two-lane highway that runs through the rural town about 230 miles northwest of New Orleans. The protesters, almost all of whom wore black T-shirts, congregated around the LaSalle Parish Courthouse before walking to Jena High School.
“I want my children to be part of history,” said A.J. Walker, 33, a black police officer who had traveled from Houston and took photographs of her two sons and daughter outside the high school. “I want to show them they have to stand for something.”
The demonstrators filed through a town essentially shut down. The courthouse, the high school and almost all the businesses — from the barber to the bail bondsman — were closed for the day. Local protesters had vowed not to spend money in the town.
Outside the courthouse, civil rights leaders emphasized that the protest was not against the inhabitants of the town.
“This is a march for justice,” Al Sharpton, the leader of the New York-based National Action Network, had said Wednesday. “This is not a march against whites or against Jena.”
Most residents of the town, which is 85 percent white, remained indoors. Those who sat outside to watch the procession said they felt frustrated by the protesters — some of whom were blasting Bob Marley from car stereos and carrying banners reading “Enough is Enough” and “Get to the Root of the Problem.”
“I actually heard a girl shout `Shame on Jena,’” said Pam Sharp, 43, a local resident who sat in a plastic chair in her driveway as the marchers walked past her house. “I shouted back `No, shame on you!’ How can they include the whole town? That’s the shame.”
The victim in the case, Sharp says, was a white student who was beaten unconscious. “Protesters don’t want to talk about him.”
According to court testimony, his face was swollen and bloodied, but he was able to attend a school function that same night.
What has become known as the “Jena Six” case began last September, when a black high school student sat under a tree traditionally, although not officially, reserved for whites. The next day, three nooses were hanging from the tree. Three white students were briefly suspended.
Then, in December, a white student was beaten up by six black schoolmates outside the school gymnasium. The black students were charged with attempted murder.
Eventually, those charges were reduced to offenses such as aggravated battery. In June, Mychal Bell was found guilty of second-degree battery charges. On Friday, the 3rd state Circuit Court of Appeal threw out his conviction, saying he had been improperly tried as an adult. Bell, now 17, remains in custody while prosecutors decide whether to file new charges against him in juvenile court.
Thursday’s rally was planned for the day Bell originally was to have been sentenced.
Many locals say Jena is no worse than the cities where protesters are coming from.
Some concede that the black students were dealt with too harshly. Some believe the nooses were just a childish prank; others say the three white students involved were just bad kids, not representative of the overall community.
“We don’t have a sign outside saying blacks are not welcome,” said Pat Randall, 55, owner of Fabrics and More, a block away from the courthouse.
Pam Gresham, who works at a bail bonds store opposite the courthouse, tried to ignore the camera crews as she took a cigarette break on her front porch. She said she would not attend Thursday’s protest.
“If all these people would actually see and talk to the people, even go to a football game, they would see it’s not a bad town,” she said. “We all play as one. We all cheer.”
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