JUST IN: Jena 6 Member Arrested

Blacks will be blacks!

A member of the “Jena Six” was arrested and charged with assault today, according to an official at a Carrollton, Texas, jail.

Bryant R. Purvis, 19, now living in the Dallas area, was charged with assault causing bodily injury and is being held in the city jail with no bail pending a Thursday morning bond hearing, the jail official said.

Broadcast media have reported his arrest was in connection to an assault on a fellow Hebron High School student after vandalism to Purvis’ car.

Calls to Tina Jones’, Purvis’ mother, went unanswered today. Information about the arrest wasn’t immediately available, and messages left for a public information officer for the Carrollton Police Department were unreturned.

Purvis and five other black teens were arrested and initially charged with attempted murder in connection with a Dec. 4, 2006, assault on a fellow Jena High School student, Justin Barker, who is white.

Soon after Purvis’ arrest, his mother said she sent him to live with his uncle, Dallas Cowboy defensive lineman Jason Hatcher, so he could stay out of trouble and out of the limelight.

Purvis had stayed out of the limelight for most of last year following the high-profile case, but he did appear on Black Entertainment Television’s Hip-Hop Awards. Purvis and fellow Jena Six defendant Carwin Jones helped present the video of the year award during the October awards show.

A message left for Darrell Hickman, Purvis’ attorney, went unreturned. But during a December interview, the Alexandria attorney said he was hopeful that LaSalle Parish District Attorney Reed Walters would drop the charges against Purvis.

“I still feel that Bryant is totally innocent in this case," Hickman said. "Only one person out of a number of witnesses indicated they saw Bryant involved. I don't think they have a strong case against him at all."

The case of the Jena Six has caught attention worldwide and led to what many have called the biggest civil rights demonstration of the new millennium on Sept. 20, 2007, when more than 20,000 marched through Jena.