Protesters highlight US race row

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
Protesters highlight US race row
Hundreds of civil rights protesters are marching through the small US town of Jena in Louisiana against what they say is continuing racism in the state. The march has been organised in support of six black teenagers, who were initially charged with attempted murder after the beating of a white classmate. A string of incidents between pupils had began the previous summer. At that time, a black student had asked the school's principal whether he was permitted to sit under the shade of the school courtyard tree, where white students traditionally congregated. He was told he could sit where he liked. The following morning, when the students arrived at school, they found three nooses dangling from the tree. The school's head recommended the noose-hangers be expelled, but the governing board overruled him and the three white student perpetrators were briefly suspended. Following this a white teenage victim was beaten unconscious and had a badly swollen face, but was able to attend a school event the same evening. The black students involved in that incident were charged with attempted murder, where as the white students who hung nooses after a black kid sat under their tree weren’t charged with anything. The tree has ended up suffering the most, as details of this case got into the media, the school chopped down the tree.