(Photo: Southern Poverty Law Center)
Jarvis DeBerry of Nola.com is reporting that former Jena Six defendant Theo Shaw is headed to the University of Washington Law School on a full scholarship. Shaw was one of six black students at Jena High School in Central Louisiana arrested in December 2006 after a school fight in which a white student was beaten and suffered a concussion and multiple bruises. The six black students were charged with attempted murder and conspiracy and facing 100 years in prison with no parole. The boys ranged in age from 15 to 17.
The fight took place after three nooses were found hanging under a tree where a black student had sat the previous day. Shaw, who was 17 at the time of his arrest and spent 7 months in jail awaiting trial, maintained his innocence during the trial. The other defendants were Robert Bailey, then aged 17; Mychal Bell, then 16; Carwin Jones, then 18; Bryant Purvis, then 17 and Jesse Ray Beard, then 14. Through online media outlets, the case of the Jena Six became widely known leading to an national civil rights campaign to help the boys, who sat in jail because of the inability to pay the bail, attain their freedom.
Bell was initially convicted as an adult of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and was facing 22 years in jail. His conviction was later overturned in juvenile court. All plead no contest to misdemeanor simple battery.
Shaw, who prior to this life event had no plans to attend college, decided to change his life and the life of others.
DeBerry writes:
He will enroll this fall at the School of Law at the University of Washington. That law school, which U.S. News and World Report puts in the country’s top 30, has chosen Shaw as one of the incoming class’ five William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholars. It’s a full scholarship, covering tuition, books and even some money for room and board and incidental expenses.
“You have already shown yourself to be a person of commitment and drive,” the letter congratulating Shaw reads. “Your participation as a Gates Scholar will help us continue to build our law school community, and will also help in making our world a better place.”
Shaw graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2012 with a BA in political science and has been working at the Southern Poverty Law Center counseling juvenile offenders. He heads to the University of Washington this fall.
Read more at Nola.com.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, founder & editor-in-chief of the Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
