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Today's featured article

Michael Baisden and the Rev. Al Sharpton during a march in Jena

Jena Six was the name given to a group of six black teenagers charged with the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, United States, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured, but was released from the emergency room the same day. A number of events took place in and around Jena in the months preceding the Barker assault, which have been linked to an alleged escalation of racial tensions. These events included the hanging of nooses from a tree in the high school courtyard, two violent confrontations between white and black youths, and the destruction by fire of the main building of Jena High School. The Jena Six case sparked protests by those viewing the arrests and subsequent charges, initially attempted second-degree murder (though later reduced), as excessive and racially discriminatory. The protesters believed that white Jena youths involved in other incidents were treated leniently. On September 20, 2007, between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena in what was described as the "largest civil rights demonstration in years". Related protests were held in other US cities on the same day. Subsequent reactions include songs alluding to the Jena Six, a considerable number of editorials and opinion columns, and Congressional hearings. (more...)

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George A. Custer

Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer of the United States Army, seated, in field uniform, 1865. Custer, an officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars, had a reputation as an aggressive commander willing to take personal risks by leading his Michigan Brigade into battle. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, against a coalition of Native American tribes, an event popularly known in American history as "Custer's Last Stand".

Photo credit: George L. Andrews

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