In September 2006, as the school year kicked off, a black Jena High School student asked the vice principal if he and some friends could sit under an oak tree where the white students typically congregated.

CNN: Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town

After sifting through his mail while eating a late lunch, Hull would sit under a shade tree on the front lawn of the Smith County Courthouse and talk with the checkers players.

CNN: Excerpt: 'The Prince of Tennessee: The Rise of Al Gore'

The old watchman sat under this tree, and Nawab and the other younger men would sit with him at dusk, teasing him, trying to make his violent temper flare up, and joking around with one another.

NEWYORKER: Nawabdin Electrician

Told by the vice principal they could sit wherever they pleased, the student and his pals plopped down under the sprawling branches of a shade tree in the campus courtyard.

CNN: Residents: Nooses spark school violence, divide town