Jena and Little Rock

In Jena, Louisiana and Little Rock, Arkansas actions were taken against African Americans trying to do something that white people saw as "wrong." In Little Rock they were just trying to attend school while white protesters were chanting obscenities and trying to do everything they could to stop integration. While schools are integrated now, 50 years later, struggles for civil rights and equality are still continuing today. This is the case of Jena. In Jena, students decided to hang a noose from a tree that white students normally hang around because they felt that the black students were intruding on "their" tree. The incidents are similar because of the way people reacted. Many blacks protested this unfair and unjust treatment through passive resistance and not through violence to get their message heard. In Little Rock, the students eventually won that "war" because President Eisenhower sent in soldiers to escort the black students in and in a way showed his support for integration and respect for the law. In Jena however, many of the students involved did not face the consequences for performing this racist hate crime.