Two Years Later, Jena Six Teens Have Moved On

By: Jackie Jones and Denise Stewart

Two years after nearly 20,000 protesters descended on Jena, Louisiana to demand justice for six black teenagers charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white fellow student at Jena High School, the teens have seemed to drop out of sight, trying to move on with their lives after their treatment sparked a movement, driven largely by the efforts of black radio.

The six black youths, who came to be known as the Jena Six, were charged following a Dec. 4, 2006 school fight with a white student, following months of escalating racial tension in the tiny Louisiana town of Jena.

Two Years Later, Jena Six Teens Have Moved On....

Jena 6 cases near conclusion

By MARY FOSTER

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Five of six black teens accused of beating a white high school classmate in a case that led to the biggest civil rights protest in decades will plead guilty in a deal expected to be finalized this week, Louisiana court officials involved with the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Jena 6 cases near conclusion....

Report: NAACP Spent More on Internal Jena Six Activities Than on Youths’ Defense Funds

By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart

Mychal Bell went to his prom this spring in Monroe, Louisiana. He’s working a job and practicing with the football team at Carroll High School in the hopes of getting approval from the state’s high school athletic association to play this fall.

And if things go well, he hopes to be released soon from juvenile court supervision, his lawyer said.

For Bell, the only one of six Louisiana teens dubbed the Jena Six to be sentenced following a 2006 fight with a white classmate, some things in life are returning to normal. But challenges still are ahead.

Attorneys for the five remaining Jena youths still are working to have the judge presiding in the matter removed. And on another front, concerns are being circulated in the blogosphere about the efficiency of fundraising to support the defense of the teens as more money is needed to continue the next phase.

On two blogs -- Jack & Jill Politics and the Jena Six Blog -- questions are being raised about a NAACP report that shows it spent more than half the money raised for the Jena youths' defense on internal costs related to the organization's activities there.

Report: NAACP Spent More on Internal Jena Six Activities Than on Youths’ Defense Funds....

WHITE JENA TEEN PLEADS GUILTY TO HATE CRIME: Jeremiah Munsen, 18, drove past marchers with nooses hanging from his pickup.

A white teen in Jena, Louisiana pleaded guilty Friday to a federal hate crime of threatening and intimidating civil rights marchers last year by displaying hangman’s nooses from the back of a pickup truck.

Federal authorities announced Friday that Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Grant Parish admitted that he placed two large nooses on his truck Sept. 20 and drove back and forth past a group of marchers gathered at a bus depot in Alexandria — about 35 miles south of Jena, where the marches took place — as they awaited buses to return them to Tennessee.

"The defendant used a noose to threaten peaceful civil rights marchers who were in Louisiana to rally against racial intolerance," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker. Munsen, who faces up to a year in prison, will be sentenced at an August 15 hearing.


Marchers were in Jena to protest local authorities who were accused of racial prejudice in the handling of several cases, including the hanging of nooses in a tree after a group of black high school students sat in an area where traditionally only white students sat.


Months later, a white student was allegedly beaten by six black classmates in 2006. The protests that followed were in criticism of local authorities who initially charged the six students dubbed the "Jena 6," with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. The charges were later reduced against those involved in the incident.