The case of the Jena Six, involving six black Louisiana high school students whose incarceration wasdenounced as unfair and racially motivated, has sparked a wave of protest that has reached Oberlin College. In response to calls on the behalf of the incarcerated young men, Oberlin students joined a nationwide walkout and held a rally in Wilder Bowl on Monday.

As part of the Wilder Bowl walkout, a rotation of students read aloud a flier from the �Malcolm X Grassroots Movement,� which provided a brief history of the Jena Six and a list of demands, including the dropping of charges against the Jena Six, the investigation of several responsible officials and a Justice Department investigation into the arrest and prosecution of the Six.

According to the flier, events were set in motion last year when black students in Jena, LA sat under a tree usually frequented only by whites. White students later hung nooses from the tree as a form of symbolic intimidation, triggering escalating racial tension in the town and leading District Attorney Reed Walters to tell the black students he could �make [their] lives disappear with stroke of [his] pen.�

�The DA did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students,� states the flier. �When a white student who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses sustained minor injuries from a school fight, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces 22 years in prison for a school fight until the black people began to organize and his conviction was thrown out.�

Students noted that Bell was released on bail on September 27 after ten months in jail, but that he still faced retrial in juvenile court.

�As students and activists we say, �This is enough,�� said College first-year Megan Day, quoting the flier. �From Sean Bell [shot by New York City Police last November] to Mychal Bell, the criminal justice system is killing and incarcerating us.�

In addition to the Jena Six case, the Oberlin walkout focused on the national struggle for racial justice and addressed local incidents of injustice in accordance with a suggestion from the Jena Six families.

To highlight the issues raised by the Jena Six, students took turns denouncing wrongs committed by the criminal justice system.

�We all live in Jena,� said College sophomore Marcelino Echeverria. �The prison-industrial complex continues to cage people, take apart families, destroy communities and inflict untold traumas.�
After recounting the arrest of three Oberlin students early Sunday morning, College senior Kyla Neilan called for students to �stand and protest racist application of law in this country from Jena, LA, to here in Oberlin, OH.�

Double-degree senior Monisola Gbadebo, whose sister was one of the students arrested on Sunday, said there was a �systemic problem� with the Oberlin police and that �every student has the right to feel safe here, and yet I do not [feel safe].�

Event organizers also distributed photocopies of articles on recent roundups of immigrant workers launched by the Department of Homeland Security�s Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Koch Foods chicken plant in Fairfield, OH, where the ICE detained 160 people.

The Oberlin walkout was organized by an informal assortment of College students. �I�m really excited by the turnout and tremendously excited to see what actions comes out of this,� said College senior and walkout organizer Gabriel Cohen.