Rallies and demonstrations were held on the campus of the UC Berkeley and in downtown San Francisco last Thursday in support of six black students in Jena, Louisiana charged in the beating of a white classmate, which many believe was prompted by several previous racially-charged incidences. Thousands of people rallied across the nation in support of the six students, known as the ‘Jena 6.’

Nearly 100 demonstrators gathered at Hallidie Plaza, near Powell and Market streets in San Francisco, with members of the local socialist organization “World Can't Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime.” Students from SF State’s Black Student Union (BSU), as well as other Bay Area college and high school students attended.

“We do care about these kids, and we do give a damn, all right,” Paul Dunbar said, through a megaphone. Dunbar is a 26-year-old student at City College of San Francisco from Hunter’s Point.

Dunbar said he has family in the south and was disappointed that he couldn’t help after Hurricane Katrina. “I’ll be damned if I let this one pass by,” he said. “I just came out here to see what the support was looking like and it’s me…and the new group I found.”

SF State students and BSU members Shavonte Keaton and Kristal Brister arrived at the demonstration as protesters left the plaza and wove through downtown streets.

“The BSU had a protest on Tuesday for the Jena 6,” Keaton said. “Some organizations came out and told us about this protest, so I decided to come down and join.”

Keaton, a 21-year-old psychology major, was invited to take the megaphone when the rally returned to the plaza.

“We need to band together, and work together and free the people that are being enslaved in this country,” Keaton said. “Not physical slavery, but the slavery that the system gives us every single day as people of color.”

Tensions began to mount in Jena, LA, when a black student asked the principal of Jena High School if he could sit under a large shady tree typically only sat under by white students. The next day, three nooses painted school colors were hung from the tree.

A series of escalating racial events would follow, most notably the arrest of Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey Jr., Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw and Jesse Ray Beard for the beating of a white classmate, for which they were charged with second degree attempted murder.

Bell was to be sentenced last Thursday after a conviction by an all-white jury in a Louisiana state court. According to various news reports, the conviction was overturned because Bell was incorrectly tried as an adult.

Bell remains in jail, as he is the only one who has not posted bail since his arrest.

Protestors and demonstrators nationwide sought to send a message to authorities involved in the Jena 6 case, as well as bring awareness to people who know little or nothing about the case.

“Google Jena 6 people,” Dunbar said to pedestrians as the rally moved through San Francisco streets. “What’s going on here?” Dunbar asked. “Just Google Jena 6 and find out. Get involved people.”

Several police officers walked with the crowd and occasionally herded protesters back onto sidewalks.

Read more about the Jena 6 in [X]press blogs.

Devin O'Keefe and Aaron Morrison contributed to this report.