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Focus on Jena
Activists descend on a Louisiana town in support of six black teens accused of beating a white classmate.


'Jena 6' case
Thousands show support for 'Jena 6'
Sept. 20: Thousands of people march in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate. NBC's Leanne Gregg reports.

Black bloggers 'spread word' on 'Jena 6'
'Jena 6' could spark new civil rights movement
Professor discusses Jena 6 case


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Updated: 8:46 p.m. ET Sept. 20, 2007


JENA, La. - Thousands of chanting demonstrators filled the streets of this little Louisiana town Thursday in support of six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate.
The crowd broke into chants of “Free the Jena Six” as the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the local courthouse with family members of the jailed teens.
Sharpton told the Associated Press that he and Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and William Jefferson, D-La., will press the House Judiciary Committee next week to summon the district attorney to explain his actions before Congress.


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This could be the beginning of a 21st century’s civil rights movement to challenge disparities in the justice system, Sharpton said, adding that he planned a November march in Washington.
“What we need is federal intervention to protect people from Southern injustice,” Sharpton told the AP. “Our fathers in the 1960’s had to penetrate the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. We have to do the same thing.”
The six black teens were charged a few months after three white teens were accused of hanging nooses in a tree at their high school. The white teens were suspended from school but weren’t prosecuted. Five of the black teens were initially charged with attempted murder. That charge was reduced to battery for all but one, who has yet to be arraigned; the sixth was charged as a juvenile.
The beating victim, Justin Barker, was knocked unconscious, his face badly swollen and bloodied, though he was able to attend a school function later that night

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16885997/


LA. always charges attempted murder first and then reduces it to battery, I know, it happened to me for a bar fight once.