CU students stage Jena 6 walkout, rally

Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera

Published October 1, 2007 at midnight

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BOULDER — With fists in the air, signs pronouncing injustice and armed with a megaphone, dozens of CU students walked out of class today and rallied in the Norlin Quandrangle in protest of the "Jena 6" case.

CU's event coincided with a national "Jena 6 Walkout" that called on students across the country to leave their classes at noon CDT to show support for six black teenagers in Jena, La., who have been charged with beating a white teenager after finding nooses hanging on a tree at their high school.

About 20 CU students left their classrooms at 10 a.m., but the 11 a.m. rally drew more than 50 people — a crowd that continued to grow throughout the more than two-hour protest.

"It's important for you all to understand that while we live in Boulder, something like this could happen in Boulder," said CU senior La'Neice Littleton, 21. "Thank you for coming when it's not in Boulder, but wait for it."

Jarvis Fuller, a member of CU's Black Student Alliance, organized the local walkout. After saying a prayer for the Jena teens today, Fuller told the crowd that he has hope for change, but he said that has to start with education.

"Things like this do happen in Boulder," Fuller said. "And if it happened here, I guarantee we'd want people to stand for us — the people of Jena to stand for us."

Most of the people at today's walkout wore green to represent liberation. Several people came to Boulder from Denver for the rally because university campuses there didn't organize to join the national campaign.

Before ending the rally at about noon today, Fuller challenged everyone to educate five people about the Jena 6 case and initiate a conversation about diversity at CU.

Last week, thousands of protesters converged on Jena to rally against what they perceive as different standards of justice for blacks and whites.

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