September 22, 2007 (LPAC)--Tens of Thousands of demonstrators marched in Jena, La., on Thursday, to protest the treatment of six black teenagers who have been charged in the beating of a white student, last December. That incident was the latest in a series of spiraling racial confrontations that began with the hanging of three nooses in a tree in August of 2006. None of the white students involved in altercations were ever charged.

For many of the protestors, the issues go far beyond this particular case, to what they believe to be unequal treatment of blacks in the justice system in general. The Washington Post quotes Rev. Al Sharpton, who told the crowd: "There's Jenas in Atlanta, there's Jenas in New York, there's Jenas in Florida and there's Jenas all over Texas." For many participants and observers, the march evoked memories of the 1960s Civil rights movement. The Rev. Kevin Domingue, who flew to Louisiana from Rockville, Md. to participate in the demonstration, told the Post that "It has been a long time since we had a march like this, and people knew it was making history."