Thanks to Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King, III, and thousands of other friends, family, and supporters, much of the world has by now seen, heard, or read about the tragic story of Robert Bailey, Mychal Bell, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, and Jesse Ray Beard – the Jena 6. After a school fight which left Justin Barker, a white student, severely beaten, the six black youths were arrested and initially charged with attempted second degree murder. Later, the charges were reduced to aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy. Usually, a charge of aggravated battery requires the use of a deadly weapon. Here, the local prosecutor, jury, and judge decided the deadly weapon was a tennis shoe. Despite their ages, all but one were charged as adults.

The Jena 6 story began in August 2006, when a new black student at the high school asked an administrator if it was permissible for black students to sit under a tree where white students traditionally gathered. After black students sat under the tree, nooses were found hanging from the tree the following day.

Despite the clear threat and intimidation implicit in the hanging of the nooses, the three white students responsible were charged with no crimes. Instead, the local board of education overruled the Principal’s recommendation that the white students be expelled. The white students were assigned to an alternative school for a few days and then served in-school suspension.

Outraged by this lenient punishment, black students gathered again under the so-called "white tree" to protest. The Principal then apparently called an assembly and invited local police and the district attorney, Reed Walters. Many of the black students believed that Walters was threatening them when he reportedly said, "With one stroke of my pen, I can make your life disappear." His subsequent actions confirmed their fears.

In December 2006, Robert Bailey, one of the Jena 6 defendants, and a few black friends tried to enter a party attended mostly by whites. They were attacked and beaten by a group of white men. Only one of those white men was charged with simply battery.

A day or so later, a white student who had been at the same party encountered Bailey and some friends. After an argument, the white student produced a shotgun. Bailey and others took the gun away from the student. The black students were charged with theft of a firearm, second degree robbery, and disturbing the peace. Apparently, no charges were brought against the white student who threatened the black students with a gun.

Justin Barker was attacked by black students a day or so later. They allegedly punched and kicked him, rendering him unconscious. Barker was treated and released from the hospital after a couple of hours and attended a high school social that evening.

The Jena 6 story is a reminder that despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, it remains true in the United States that there is one set of laws for whites and a different set for blacks. The case tells me that it is still true that in too many locales, black people have no rights that white people must respect. Jena reminds me of Money, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; Scottsboro, Birmingham, and Selma, Alabama; as well as so many unsung, unknown communities where some who control the white power structure misuse it to abuse black people.

The American criminal justice system is decidedly anti-black. The entire system is infested with racial bias and animus. And too many prosecutors in large and small towns like Jena, Louisiana, use their enormous power in racist and draconian ways to punish blacks for behavior or conduct that receives no criminal punishment when done by many whites. Surely, the message in Jena is that blacks who don’t stay in their place will be punished.

Reed Walters deserves much of the blame in this case. But it also took a jury and judge to indict and convict Mychal Bell in June of 2007. Fortunately, an appellate court has overturned Bell’s conviction on the ground that he should not have been charged and tried as an adult since he was only 16 when the fight occurred. But that reversal in no way addresses the deep-seeded racial animus present in the whole episode. Moreover, Bell still faces aggravated assault charges which could render him in juvenile detention for four more years.

People of goodwill of whatever race or color must lift up their voices and repudiate the patently racist administration of justice in Jena and in every other town in the United States. We must demand action against prosecutors who abuse their power on the backs of black children. We must galvanize our communities to run those prosecutors out of public office when they breach the public trust by violating core anti-discrimination constitutional values. They are not above the law and they should be made to pay for their racist behavior. The law may protect Walters’ right to believe in the racial superiority of the white race, but it must not allow him to misuse the power of the state to enforce his private prejudices.