Mary Foster, The Associated Press, January 21, 2008
JENA, La. — About 50 white separatists protested the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday in this tiny town, that was thrust into the spotlight months ago by 20,000 demonstrators who claimed prosecutors discriminated against blacks.
Police separated participants in the “pro-majority” rally organized by the Learned, Miss.-based Nationalist Movement from a racially mixed group of about 100 counter-demonstrators outside the LaSalle Parish Courthouse.
At least person was arrested after about six counter-protesters gathered in a semicircle around a podium where the separatist group’s leader Richard Barrett was to speak.
Dozens of state police forced the counter-demonstrators back before Barrett spoke Monday afternoon. One man who broke away from the crowd was arrested and booked with battery on a police officer; authorities identified him as William Winchester Jr. of New Orleans and said he was a member of the New Black Panthers.
Earlier, chants of “No KKK” from the mostly college-aged counter-demonstrators with met with a chant from the separatists that contained a racial epithet.