The tree of knowledge sits in a dated courtyard. Surrounded by an aging school, a plant bed with no life, scattered desks and a beaten sidewalk.

It was in the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden that they were shown the evils of the world. Shattered were their rose colored glasses and now visible was a disturbing world.

The tree of knowledge in Jena, La. has opened the eyes of a nation and exposed to them the very real presence of racism not only in the American South, but everywhere.

It was under this tree one year ago, that white students continued unlawful segregation, posting an invisible sign that read, ‘Whites Only.’ It was under this tree that black students sat one day, and a day later it was under this tree that nooses were hung from its expansive branches.

To some in this rural community, it was just a schoolyard prank but to others who can still remember days when “strange fruit” hung from trees like the one at Jena High School, it was a disheartening sign that things hadn’t changed that much at all.

In the ensuing months, violence broke out in this quaint Louisiana town that sits 230 miles northwest of New Orleans, after the three white students accused of hanging the nooses only received a three-day suspension. After that came a string of fights between White students and Black students, who only count for 85 of the 460 students at Jena High School.

After a fire destroyed part of the high school in November, racial intimidation continued when a black student was attacked for coming to an all-white party and days later when another white Jena resident pulled a shotgun on three black students at a convenient store.

December 4, 2006 was the day Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School, was jumped by a group of black students and knocked unconscious as he left the gym.

It’s believed that his association with the students who hung the three nooses and later intimidated black students, led to his attack. Barker suffered various injuries to his face and has run up a medical bill of nearly $12,000 according to his parents.

That incident landed six black students; Robert Bailey (who was the black student attacked the all-white party), Jesse Beard, Mychal Bell, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis and Theodore Shaw, in a local jail facing attempted second-degree murdercharges on top of a being expelled from school.

The charges, which were laid down by LaSalle Parish district attorney Reed Walters, sent shockwaves through this already tense and divided community, making many wonder why the six blacks teens had been charged so severely when the white teen who attacked Robert Bailey Jr. at a party was charged with simple battery the white man who brandished the weapon saw no repercussions for his actions.

Walters has made himself the embodiment of modern-day Jim Crow. First by threatening blacks students during an already segregated assembly, that one stroke of his pen could ruin their lives, then by painting six young men as internal terrorists.

In an Chicago Tribune story, Jena Mayor, Murphy McMillan said “Race is not a major local issue. It’s not a factor in the local people’s lives.”

Kind of hard to believe when thousands, including about 60 A&T students, plan to descend upon Jena on Thursday in protest of the injustice happening in the area where blacks only make up 12 percent of the total population and as recent as 1991, a former Ku Klux Klan leader won the popular vote in Jena in a failed attempt to become Louisiana governor.

The tree of knowledge awakensThe town signs reads, “A nice place to call home,” but Jena has become synonymous with racism in America yet the tree of knowledge has led to positives in the black community.

There has been an awakening of social activism in a generation that was absent of a single unifying cause, a renewed sense of work to be done in trying to achieve civil rights for all Americans.

On college campuses nationwide, including A&T, racial lines are being erased as students of all background stand up for what is injustice. Facebook groups, t-shirts, petitions have all been More than the outrage over of the war in Iraq and the timeline for troop removal from the Middle East, the story of the Jena Six has stretched beyond the city limits of this town of 3,000, past the 350 black people who reside there and into the hearts and minds on black people everywhere who still know that bigotry and out right racism still exist in this country that likes to think we’re so far beyond that.

It’s been a long time since figures in the black community have lived up to their civic responsibility and the Jena situation has given organizations like the NAACP and figures like Al Sharpton and A&T alum, Jesse Jackson to regain the trust of their community and renew perceptions of them by a general public that had grown tired of seeing them trot out and protest something new every few months.

Jena may not be a community that’s initially racist but subconscious racial supremacy is etched in the fabric of their everyday life. It shows in their actions, their speech and is probably ingrained in their thoughts.

To them this entire situation is being blown out of proportion and maybe they are right but it’s out of tragedy comes hope and the plight of the Jena Six may just be a blessing in disguise for everyone. I guess we aren’t a lost generation after all.

McClatchy Campus contributed to this report

• Mike McCray