Just a day before three nooses were seen dangling from a tree in Jena, La., a young black boy felt the need to ask his principal whether or not he was able to sit underneath that same tree which had a reputation of being the “white tree.” The three nooses alluded back to a time of racial injustice. This was a hate crime, and yet the people who were responsible for this heinous act were prosecuted lightly, with in-school suspensions, Saturday detentions, alternative schooling for nine days and disciplinary court.

Within months the school cut down that tree, symbolic in its intentions, yet an action that couldn’t erase the fact there was an obvious problem of racism embedded deep in the roots of the city. Knowing all this, I look to the Jena 6, a group of six black Jena High School students, who were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder and were expelled for beating up a white boy who was mocking one of the boys.