(2007-09-21) — Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, today said the “Jena 6” — a half dozen black teenagers arrested last year in the beating of a white teenager — “have earned the mantle of Rosa Parks, and Americans should not turn a blind eye to the injustice of their cause.”

“If Rosa Parks were alive today,” Sen. Obama said, “and if Rosa Parks gathered her posse and beat the stuffing out of a white boy and got charged with attempted murder, we would take to the streets just as we have for the Jena 6. The historical parallels are stunningly obvious. This is the most horrifying civil rights violation of our day.”

The Rev. Jackson added that, “Somewhere in heaven, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is looking down on us and smiling to see the legacy of his non-violent protest movement as we stand up for the rights of these persecuted boys.”