Civil rights protesters converge on Jena

JENA, Louisiana (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of black Americans descended on a small town in central Louisiana on Thursday to protest what they say is injustice against six black teen-agers charged over a high school fight.

Protesters arrived in buses and cars from cities as far away and apart as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New Orleans for a rally in support of the "Jena 6."

The case has become a symbol for many blacks of a wider struggle against racism and perceived discrimination against black males by the criminal justice system.

"I came because enough is enough. I am tired of the way the courts have been treating African Americans historically," said Doug Martin, a computer analyst from New Orleans.

Most of the demonstrators were dressed in black. Some held banners reading "Free the Jena 6" and chanted "no justice, no peace, no racist police."

By mid-afternoon, scores of buses departed the town as protesters began long journeys home. Many said the rally, which was peaceful, gave young people a taste of the activism associated with the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

The Jena protest spawned rallies in New York City, where about 200 people dressed in black gathered on the steps of City Hall, and in Washington, where several hundred met across the street from the U.S. Capitol.

At both rallies people wore black T-shirts that read "Free the Jena 6."

The case stems from an incident in August of last year when three nooses were found hanging from a tree at the high school in the town of 3,000 northwest of New Orleans. Nooses have been seen as a symbol of racial lynchings of blacks.

Black residents said that incident stoked tension in the town, and in December the teen-agers were charged with assault after a white classmate was beaten up.

Charges against some of the youths were later raised to attempted murder, drawing accusations from protesters that they had been excessively charged. Those charges have since been reduced.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

For many blacks the "Jena 6" case has attained the status of a modern-day version of the incidents that punctuated the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Word about it has spread through the black community partly through syndicated radio shows by civil rights leader Al Sharpton and popular disc jockey Michael Baisden.

Several candidates for the Democratic nomination for president including Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards issued statements urging justice in the case. The candidates are vying for black votes.

The protest was originally timed to coincide with the sentencing of one of the students, Mychal Bell, convicted of charges including aggravated second-degree battery.

He was tried before an all-white jury, which civil rights leaders said is itself evidence of discrimination.

This month the conviction was overturned, in part because Louisiana's Third Circuit Court ruled that he should not have been tried as an adult.

Prosecutor Donald Washington, U.S. attorney in the western district of Louisiana, said some facts of the case had been exaggerated. He said there was no direct link between the noose incident and the December fight, which he said was motivated by "male bravado" rather than race.

Some black community leaders in Jena said the case was an example of wider problems in the town, which they said was effectively segregated and had few opportunities for blacks more than 40 years after laws were passed to end segregation.

"Blacks live on one side of town. Whites live in another side of town. We live in a segregated city. We've done it all our lives. It's not something that we want but it's something we can't do anything about," said B.L. Morgan, pastor of Antioch church in the town and a rally organizer.