The case in Jena.

If you haven't already read about the "Jena 6" – six black high schoolers facing murder charges in a rural Louisiana town, please check out the following link to NPR's coverage of the story. Inform yourself.

In summary: Last year, three black students sat under a tree at Jena High School where white students would normally sit. The next day, three nooses were hung from the tree. A group of white students was found to be responsible for hanging the nooses, and received an in-school suspension for the "prank" (the school's word). In the following days and weeks, race relations in the small town high school continued to deteriorate. A black student was beaten up at a party attended by mostly white students, and the next day, when he got in an argument with a white student who was at the party, the white student went to his car to get his gun. The black student and his friends wrestled the gun away from him and took it home – and were charged with theft of a firearm. The culminating incident occurred when six black students beat up a white student after he allegedly used racial slurs. The boys were initially charged with aggravated assault, but the district attorney changed the charges to attempted 2nd degree murder. For more information, particularly about the trials, please read below...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14533821

For those of you at IU, there's also a facebook group (of course) you can check out for more information.

http://indiana.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4897458234

I'll refrain from stating any opinions about the case and let you make your own decisions. I have a feeling you'll be hearing more and more about this story in the coming weeks.