For HBCU Students, Jena Is The Civil Rights Movement of Their Generation: North Carolina Central University law student Quinn Byars had heard all the talk about being part of history for making the trek to Jena, La., with thousands of other protestors Thursday. But college students like Byars believe they’ve made a much bigger statement to the world. “For our generation it’s so important because we don’t really get the opportunity to come together like this,” says Byars during Thursday’s rally in Jena. “It gives us an opportunity to come together to make noise and come together on an issue.”
To take a stand against injustice, specifically the excessive charges leveled against the six young Black male high school students in the small Louisiana town for injuries suffered by a White male student in a school fight, is what brought thousands to town to demand justice for the group dubbed the “Jena 6.”
Jena is a rural, central Louisiana town of nearly 3,000 residents (85 percent White) surrounded by acres of cotton fields and small two-lane highways. It’s also a town that historically has had tense race relations, where Whites live on their side of town and Blacks on theirs. Rarely do the two meet."
