Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/thousands-protest-in-support-of-jena-six Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Thousands marched in Jena, La. Thursday to protest charges against six black students accused of beating a white classmate. A reporter and an NAACP representative discuss the ramifications of the case. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. MARGARET WARNER: Now the criminal prosecution of six students in Jena, Louisiana, and the national reaction it has provoked. Jeffrey Brown begins our coverage with some background. JEFFREY BROWN: Today's marches in Jena, Louisiana, a town of about 3,500, were to protest the treatment of Mychal Bell and five fellow African-American high school classmates who have become known as the Jena Six. THE REVEREND AL SHARPTON, Civil Rights Activist: No justice… CROWD: No peace! AL SHARPTON: Free the Jena Six! JEFFREY BROWN: Bell was convicted in June by an all-white jury on adult felony counts of aggravated battery and conspiracy in the beating of a white schoolmate.The troubles in Jena began last September, when a black student asked his principal if he could sit under this tree, known as the white tree, traditionally a gathering spot for Jena High School's white students. He was told "yes" and did. The next day, two nooses were found hanging from the tree's limbs. The three white students involved were suspended for the act but not charged with any crime.That set in motion a string of racially motivated incidents, including a series of fights, a fire set in the main building of Jena High School, and then, in December, the beating of Justin Barker by Mychal Bell and five friends. Barker was treated and released the same day from a local hospital.His six attackers were charged first with attempted murder and expelled from school. The murder charges were later reduced. Jena's black community protested that the black students had been dealt with far more harshly than the whites.Last Friday, the conviction of Mychal Bell was overturned by the state court of appeals on grounds that he should have been charged as a minor. But Bell, who had a prior juvenile record of violence, remains in jail as prosecutors consider an appeal.In Jena, some local residents said the demonstrators coming from outside were overreacting. JENA RESIDENT: I just want people to know that we're not all racists. A lot of this got blown out of proportion from a lot of them not getting their facts straight. JEFFREY BROWN: But some protestors say this case is emblematic of a wider problem. JENA PROTESTOR: Jena is just a microcosm of what is happening in the United States as a whole. JEFFREY BROWN: And the shade tree at the center of the dispute? School officials recently cut it down.