The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks —— Whites under the shaded "White tree," and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, a Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the "White tree," and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the "White tree," which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school's population.

"That's a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don't care what anybody says," Jones told The Final Call. "A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town."

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6.