Thousands Protest Jena 6 In Chicago's Daley Plaza, NW Indiana Residents Bus To Jena For Protest

Thousands of protesters gathered in Chicago's Daley Plaza last night to show support for the " Jena 6 " -- six teens who some say were overcharged when they beat a classmate who had taunted them with racial slurs after African-American students had gathered under a tree usually frequented by Caucasian students.

Chicago area residents also boarded buses to join a nationwide protest to be held in Jena, Louisiana. Some Northwest Indiana residents also traveled to Jena, Louisiana.

Friends of Northwest Indiana & the Chicagoland -- We have organized a bus to Jena, LA. We will leave Sept. 19th @ 11 a.m. from the old K-Mart parking lot, Indpls. Blvd., Hammond, IN. We will then pick up passengers from the Chicagoland Area. ... We will attend the rally on the 20th.

Reports CNN about the Jena 6 case:

Many said they are angry the six black students, dubbed the "Jena 6," are being treated more harshly than the white students who hung the nooses. The white students were suspended from school but did not face criminal charges. The protesters argue they should have been charged with a hate crime. The black students face charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the schoolyard beating.

Trey Ellis explains the significance of the Jena 6 case:

The Jena 6 case began last fall when a new black student to the mostly white, rural Louisiana town of Jena sat under the "white tree," so called because it was the place where the white kids at school congregated.

The next day three white boys on the rodeo team hung three nooses from the tree.

The white boys were only given an in-school suspension, their act deemed no more than a "prank."

The day after that several of the school's black high school football stars organized a peaceful silent protest under the tree. The school freaked, called in the police and the next day Reed Walters, the local D.A., addressed the school. There, he is reported to have looked at the black kids in the audience, waved his pen in the air and said, "With a stroke of this pen, I can make your life disappear."

As thousands from around the country travel to Jena, Louisiana, the Associated Press reports in this video that tensions are running high in that town.