Thousands of demonstrators are gathering in Jena Mississippi to protest treatment of what are being called the "Jena Six". These are six black teenagers who are accused of beating a white student unconscious at or near the high school which all of the youths attended. The protest is primarily concerning the severity of the crime that one of the six is being accused of. Present are notable black leaders including Martin Luther King III, Jessie Jackson, and Al Sharpton. Here is the background as I understand it:

An area beneath a large tree on the High School campus had become a lunch and after-school lounging area for white students to the exclusion of black students. Several black students broke this taboo by lunching under the tree. Soon after, three nooses were hung from a branch in the tree. And shortly after this, a white student was attacked after school by the six black students. The white student was taken to hospital, treated, and releaed the same day. The six were then arrested, and one student charged, apparently, with attempted manslaughter.

The protests have apparently arisen over two factors : The severity of the charge against the black student, and the fact that several white students found to have strung the nooses were merely expelled instead of charged with hate crimes.

Am I missing something here? First, I believe that the white student who was beaten was not one of those who hung the nooses. Did the fact that nooses were displayed justify violence against someone merely because he was white? I watched a CNN reporter bubbling about how excited she was to be there "because this is solid news...this is what we went to school for". I also heard King III saying "this has all the atmosphere of the civil rights marches of 40 years ago. I'm glad the young people are finally getting a sense of the struggle". Correct me if I'm wrong, but unless these six have been falsely accused, they are certainly lousy examples of martyrs for freedom or equality. And there has been no protest of their innocence as of yet.

When I hear King say his Father would have condoned the march and rally, I really find it difficult to believe it.