Lauren Villegas was in Jena, La., less than two weeks ago, showing her support for the Jena 6 alongside thousands of others. On Monday, the Weinberg junior stood with a couple dozen other students at The Rock, handing out flyers and explaining her cause to passers-by.

The reason: Villegas believes situations such as the one in Jena can and will happen again.

“We want to emphasize that this is not a one-time issue,” Villegas said, adding that the problem is not limited to one area of the country or one ethnic group. “It just happens to be a particularly egregious example.”

Villegas was one of tens of thousands who marched in Jena on Sept. 20 in support of six high school students who many believe were victims of racial injustice. The six black teens were originally charged with attempted murder for beating a white classmate in December. The charges against four of the teens have been reduced to battery.

One of the students, Mychal Bell, was originally convicted of second-degree battery, but that decision was recently overturned. He was released on $45,000 bail last Thursday and still faces charges in juvenile court. The incident has been seen nationally as the culmination of racial tensions in the town. Several months prior to the fight, a group of white students hung nooses from a tree outside the high school.

Monday’s protest was part of a nationwide effort supported by Mos Def and other activists to raise awareness of the Jena situation, said organizer Lauren Alexander, a Medill sophomore. She said a lot of people were taking flyers and discussing Jena issues.

“It’s not an issue of white versus black,” Alexander said. “It’s an issue of justice and humanity and we want people of all ethnicities to be involved.”

When Weinberg senior Jason Okonofua read about Bell and the other members of the Jena 6 on Facebook a couple of months ago, he was surprised he hadn’t heard about it sooner. This lack of awareness, he said, prompted him to help organize Monday’s protest, which was not sponsored by any single organization.

“I feel like there are a lot of people like me who didn’t know that this was going on,” Okonofua said. “I think this is the perfect way to get the word out.”

In addition to passing out flyers and talking about the Jena situation, demonstrators took the names and e-mail addresses of people who said they would like to be part of roundtable discussions about Jena-related topics, Okonofua said. He’s also hoping to plan a bigger protest about Jena and other diversity issues in the near future.

Greg Jue, a staff member in the Asian-American studies program, also participated in the protest. Like Villegas, Jue traveled to Jena on a bus with other protesters who live in the Chicago area. When the bus reached Alexandria, La., Jue said, there were so many buses that there was a 25-mile line to the city and the traffic was stopped.

“Everyone felt like we were a part of history,” he said. “It was an echo of the civil rights era.”

His bus eventually started moving again, but many people on board said they were considering trekking the 25 miles to Jena on foot, Jue said.

“I’m very excited to see people stepping out, being determined to do something,” he said.

Villegas said although nothing on Jena’s scale has happened at Northwestern, she believes there are misunderstandings between members of different groups.

“There is racial tension on this campus. We all know about it,” Villegas said. “We want to foster an open, comfortable setting for discussion.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Annie Martin at [email protected]