Blood at the Root is inspired by the December 2006 events surrounding the “Jena Six,” six black teenagers (Robert Bailey, then aged 16; Mychal Bell, then 16; Carwin Jones, then 17; Bryant Purvis, then 17; Jesse Ray Beard, then 14; and Theo Shaw, then 17) convicted in the alleged beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana. While the case was pending, liberal commentators often cited it as an example of racial injustice in the United States, believing the defendants were initially charged with too-serious offenses and treated unfairly. The case sparked protests by those who saw the arrests and charges—initially attempted second-degree murder (though later reduced)—as excessive and racially discriminatory. Protesters argued that white Jena youths involved in other incidents, such as the hanging of nooses from a tree in the courtyard, were treated leniently. On September 20, 2007, between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena in what was described as the “largest civil rights demonstration in years.” Related protests took place in other US cities that same day.

Bryant Purvis has since authored a book, My Story as a Jena Six, which gives a vivid account of the incident and his experience being a young black boy in Jena: “When I was seventeen years old, I was charged with attempted murder. It was a crime I did not commit; in fact, I wasn’t even in the room when it happened. But I was soon implicated as a conspirator, and from that moment on, my life changed forever. I should have known that it was only a matter of time before either myself or someone I cared about would be hurt by living in Jena. White people stayed on one side of town, and black people stayed on the other. If you didn’t follow these unwritten rules, then someone was going to get hurt. But I was an optimist kid, and all I cared about was hanging out with my friends, being good to my mom, and playing ball. I didn’t understand at the time that there were people in the world that would attempt to ruin a black man’s reputation, or even take his life, just to prove a point.”

Playwright Dominique Morisseau uses this event to develop the fictitious story for Blood at the Root. The story challenges the audience with the social responsibility of dealing with “the other” to create change: How do we judge and treat people who are different? How does that judgment keep us apart from one another and impede our progress? Everyone has an “other” and we all deal with people who are unlike ourselves. This play follows a group of high school students desperately trying to define themselves and navigate around those who identify themselves differently. These students learn that without struggle there is no progress and that that struggle requires uniting despite differences. United, they find their power to reverse injustice. In the journey of these six high school students, Morisseau also addresses propaganda, individual freedoms, and racial inequality in the judiciary system.

This is a protest piece and a call to action. If the past year has not ignited within you a spirit of activism, I pray the story of Jena 6 reimagined through Dominique’s Morisseau's compelling characters will ignite within you a social responsibility to fight racism. “We all have a part to play and what you do with that part determines whether you added value or destruction.” - Toria, Blood at the Root