Being an African American student, the Jena 6 really took a toll on me. A racial crime at a high school, is not something I accustomed to and that was exactly what happened in Jena, Louisiana. At Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana the students stay segregated. The black students hang out around the auditorium and the white students sit under a tree in the courtyard. This was so, until the beginning of a school year last year when and African American student asked the principal of the high school, if he could sit under the tree as the white students did. The principal replied to the student, that he could sit anywhere he would like to sit. As a result of the blacks sitting under the tree, three nooses were hung from the tree in the courtyard. Many residents in the community wanted the three white boys expelled from school, but that didn’t happen. After the superintendent and others investigated the act, they decided that the nooses being hung up was a prank and the boys received suspension from school. Blacks feel as if this was unfair. One black teacher at the school stated, that white students can do anything and get a slap on the hand. A few days later a few black students got together and began a protest under the tree that caused all the problems. Because of this an assembly was called and the police and district attorney were summoned. District attorney Reed Wallace stated to the students, one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear. The black students went and told their parents that the DA was looking right at them. Could you explain when the black kids took the gun from the white student so he couldn’t harm them, but they got in trouble and not the white kid. Because of all the things going on the problem began to escalate, with fights breaking out all over the place. On November 30, Jena High School was burned down, with the whites blaming it on the blacks and the blacks blaming it on the whites. It was a very tragic event that affected all the black communities around the world. This just goes to show how unfair the blacks are treated around the world and it not with the same respect as the white people class of people of the world. The only way they are treated the same is if they famous are something. Jena Six was the name given to a group of six black teenagers charged with the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, United States, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured, but was released from the emergency room the same day. He has since brought suit against members of the Jena Six, their parents, the school district, and others allegedly involved. A number of events took place in and around Jena in the months preceding the Barker assault, which have been linked to an alleged escalation of racial tensions. These events included the hanging of nooses from a tree in the high school courtyard, two violent confrontations between white and black youths, and the destruction by fire of the main building of Jena High School. The incidents were often linked in the extensive news coverage regarding the Jena Six. Six individuals (Robert Bailey, aged 17; Mychal Bell, 16; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; Jesse Ray Beard, 14; and Theo Shaw, 17) were arrested in the assault on Barker. One, Mychal Bell, was initially convicted as an adult of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. His convictions were overturned on the ground that he should have been tried as a juvenile. Prior to a retrial in juvenile court, he pled guilty to a reduced charge of simple battery. The other five defendants still await trial. The Jena Six case sparked protests by those viewing the arrests and subsequent charges, initially attempted second-degree murder , as excessive and racially discriminatory. The protesters believed that white Jena youths involved in other incidents were treated leniently. On September 20, 2007, between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena in what was described as the "largest civil rights demonstration in years". Related protests were held in other US cities on the same day.