Wear Black Tomorrow

Tomorrow, thousands of Americans will make the trip to the small town of Jena, La., to show both support for the Jena Six and disgust at a criminal justice system that has shown obvious racial bias toward six students who acted out against a series of race-related threats and attacks from their white classmates.

If you aren't familiar with the Jena Six, a well-documented timeline of events can be found here.

The charges have raised concerns over a different kind of racism emerging in the South –

Three rope nooses hanging from a tree in the courtyard of a school in a small Southern town in Louisiana have sparked fears of a new kind of "stealth" racism spreading through America's deep south.

The bad old days of the "Mississippi Burning" 60s, civil liberties and race riots, lynchings, the KKK and police with billy clubs beating up blacks might have ended.

But in the year that the first serious black candidate for the White House, Barak Obama, is helping unite the races in the north, the developments in the tiny town of Jena are disturbing.

Support for the Jena Six has been pouring out since their arrest, and an organized march is scheduled to occur tomorrow, the day the first student was to face sentencing. Even though his conviction has since been overturned, buses and caravans are leaving dozens of American cities tonight and tomorrow morning, making their way to the small town of approximately 3,500 to show their support for the Six.

More than 300 Facebook groups have been created to show support for the Six, and an Internet petition has gathered more than 300,000 signatures. The case has received so much international attention that English rocker David Bowie has donated $10,000 to the students' defense. Initial predictions place tomorrow's rally attendance at 30,000, while higher estimates reach more than 60,000. Those who can't attend are urged to wear black to show their support.

What's troubling is that many Americans have never even heard about the case. Hopefully, tomorrow serves as a wake-up call.