Jena (Louisiana)

La Salle Parish

22-38285

Jena is a town and administrative headquarters of the La Salle Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. In 2000, Jena had 2,971 inhabitants; until the official 2009 estimate, the population dropped to 2,847.

History

The city was founded in 1906 and named after the Thuringian university city of Jena, where exactly 100 years earlier, in 1806, Napoleon's troops had won a triumphant victory over Prussia ( Battle of Jena and Auerstedt ).

In September 2007, the place made ​​beyond the borders of the United States beyond the headlines. About 10,000 people demonstrated there against a perceived as racist judicial sentence against six black teenagers. Incidents at a school had previously caused a stir in the small town. The case was known in particular by a protest song called " Jena Six", which was released on YouTube.