"Price List" Jena, Louisiana — 2007

"Price List" Jena, Louisiana — 2007

This photograph from the Jena Six protest displays a sign that itemizes the material costs of activism and freedom, framing them as investments rather than expenses. The "Price List" juxtaposes immediate, quantifiable costs (gas for travel, food for sustenance, legal fees) against intangible but invaluable outcomes: freedom for their children, described as "priceless."

The sign articulates a critical perspective on activism: that pursuit of justice requires sacrifice and resource mobilization from communities often facing economic constraints. By rendering costs visible and explicit, the protesters challenged the notion that civil rights activism is costless or that participation is equally accessible across class lines. The rhetorical move from enumerated prices to the assertion that freedom is "priceless" performs a powerful inversion—acknowledging material hardship while affirming that certain struggles transcend economic calculation.

This framing also implicitly critiques the broader system: that Black families must expend their own limited resources to pursue basic justice and protection from state violence. The sign documents how the Jena Six movement required not only moral commitment but concrete material sacrifice from participants, illuminating the economic dimensions of racial justice work often obscured in mainstream narratives focused on legal proceedings alone.