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'Ready for change': Civil rights marchers descend on Jena for peaceful demonstration; see photo galleries from Jena
Locals part of crowd of 60,000 in protest march
Marsha Sills
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JENA - The "Jena Six" became the Jena 60,000 Thursday.
They came from as near as Alexandria, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Slidell, New Orleans and as far away as Detroit; Anchorage, Alaska; Los Angeles; the Cayman Islands.



The streets of the small town spilled over with cries of "No Justice! No Peace!" and "Free the Jena Six!"

Young and old walked together.
Together, they chanted. Together, they held hands and prayed. Together, they lifted up six black teenagers who they feel represent a painful lesson that in some parts of the country equality still has to be fought for.

"We're trying to get justice for other countries. We say this, but in America, when it comes down to justice, there's just one justice for one race," said Palmer Johnson of Lafayette.

The prosecution of six Jena High School students after a fight that sent one white student to the emergency room is what brought them here. The students initially were charged with attempted second-degree murder as adults, not juveniles. The conviction of one of the students, Mychal Bell, was overturned. The judge who reviewed the case said the case should have been tried in juvenile court.

The handling of the incident by school officials, board members and the district attorney's office set in motion the event that the Rev. Al Sharpton on Thursday called the modern civil rights movement in America.

"We've gone from plantations to penitentiaries," Sharpton told an early morning crowd gathered in front of the courthouse. Sharpton brought the parents of Mychal Bell onto the stage. Their son still sits in a jail cell. Bell's mother, Melissa Bell, wiped tears from her eyes as she stood in front of the crowd that began growing as more buses made their way to Jena. The crowd showed their support of her with their applause and cheers. She smiled and wiped away more tears from her cheeks.

Their son is an example of how the criminal justice system "targets our young black men," Sharpton said.

"We cannot sit by silent. That's why we came and why we'll keep coming. ... We come to Jena to face James Crow Jr., Esquire," Sharpton said.

Police estimated that at least 60,000 people attended the rally. While there were murmurs about whether the crowds could be contained or if the rally would turn violent, the rally remained what it was intended - one of peace.

Sharpton, the leader of the National Action Network, told the crowd that Bell had two things he wanted tell those who came out to support him and his friends: Thank you and to not evoke "any kind of violence."

After the rally at the courthouse, the crowd split around the courthouse on parallel streets to march to Jena High School. The pilgrimage came in droves to the campus to walk the grounds and to see the site where a tree once stood. The tree held nooses in August of last year. The tree no longer stands. A huddle formed around the pile of dirt that's in its place now.

Two young women faintly sang the refrain, "We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome, someday..."

"I hope that this is really the last stand that we'll have to take," said Desireé Paillet, a UL student. "I hope my kids don't have to face this."

Paillet looked back at the crowds walking down the slanting road that leads to the school. A nonstop sea of bodies marched. Walking through that crowd was one of the most powerful things she's experienced in her life, the young woman said.

Although all were from different places and different backgrounds Thursday, there were no differences. Everyone was the same, said Jariski White, president of UL's chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.

"They all look alike. They look like family," White said.

The chanting didn't wane as the crowds moved onto the campus. "No Justice! No Peace!" As Donelle Coleman Jr. made the walk, those words punctuated the tragedy that the six teens face, he said.

"Dude is 16 years old, and his life is just starting and they're taking it away from him like that?" asked Coleman. Although a native of Detroit, the 23-year-old now lives in Opelousas.

In the crowd Dana, Mouton of Broussard called with crowd, "No Justice! No Peace!"

A helicopter passed overhead. A photographer pointed his lens down at the crowd. They responded with shouts and fists in the air.

A few short miles away from the school, more rallies were held at the Ward 10 Recreation Park.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, radio personality Michael Baisden and Martin Luther King III were only a few of the leaders who rallied the crowds.

"March until something happens," Jackson said. "Embrace until something happens ... and next year, vote with the hope that something will happen."

The heat didn't wilt the crowd's enthusiasm. The American Red Cross encouraged marchers to stay hydrated and offered water bottles at stations set up along the route to the school and the recreation park.

Some found shade under store awnings or trees.

While the teens' behavior shouldn't go unpunished, the punishment should have fit the crime, said Mercurlus Ellis of Lafayette.

"I wouldn't want to live in any other country, but we need to practice what we preach," Ellis said.

Another group making its way back to the courthouse began the chant to lead them there: "What do we want?" a man shouted. "Justice!" the group called back. "When do we want it?" he asked. "Now!"

Seven-year-old Selina Rollins of Slidell walked ahead of the man with the megaphone. She hoisted an American flag above her head. Her mother, Letitia, caressed the young girl's shoulder with one hand as they walked with the crowd. A few feet away, her 18-year-old daughter, Bianca, carried another American flag.

"I hope they take away the learning experience that it's not about color, it's about rights," the mother said. "It's about equal rights."

She touched her daughter's shoulder.

"If I can teach her that at this age, then I'll have it made."

Students in Karen Sellers' class at Acadiana High School know why she wasn't in school Thursday.

The teacher told her students she'd be in Jena.

"It warms me to be here and hold hands with strangers," Sellers said. "You could feel the positive energy and the anger. Everybody's ready for change."


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