Meanwhile, In Jena, Louisana
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law, RaceA tragic story about race, hate and the mistakes we could all make if we’re pushed to the edge.
One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman’s nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.The tree was on the side of the campus that, by long-standing tradition, had always been claimed by white students, who make up more than 80 percent of the 460 students. But a few of the school’s 85 black students had decided to challenge the accepted state of things and asked school administrators if they, too, could sit beneath the tree’s cooling shade.
“Sit wherever you want,” school officials told them. The next day, the nooses were hanging from the branches.
African-American students and their parents were outraged and intimidated by the display, which instantly summoned memories of the mob lynchings that once terrorized blacks across the American South. Three white students were quickly identified as being responsible, and the high school principal recommended that they be expelled. [...]
But Jena’s white school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, ruled that the nooses were just a youthful stunt and suspended the students for three days, angering blacks who felt harsher punishments were justified.
What happened after that? You’ll have to click over to find out.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 and is filed under Law, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Racism is alive and well in the US.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:09 am
School Superintgendent “Roy Breithaupt” should be totally acountable for the outrage. The black studentsfelt as if they need to ask to sit under the tree…then the nooses were hung…HOW SAD IS THIS?