A judge opened legal proceedings against a black teenager, one of “Jena Six” to the public on Wednesday.

The six black teenagers were accused of beating a white student at a high school in Jena, Louisiana. The fight started after several white students hung nooses from a tree in front of the school. Justin Barker was the name of the white student at Jena High School. He spent several hours in the emergency room but attended a school event later in the day.

Mychal Bell was one of the black students involved in the incident. His prosecution led to a massive civil rights protest, which took place on November 15.

By that time thousands of people marched to the Justice Department in Washington, asking the government to take stronger action against racially motivated crimes and the injustice black people are subjected to. "Jena Six" was such a case.

Critics accused prosecutor Reed Walters of treating blacks more harshly than he treated whites. Apparently, his office did not file charges against the three white teenagers who had hung the nooses shortly before the attack on Barker.

All proceedings against Bell, including hearings, the trial and sentencing will be public even though the teenager is being tried as a juvenile, state District Judge Thomas Yeager decided.

"We need to have public trials so the public has confidence in what we do," Yeager said during a hearing in a lawsuit filed by media organizations covering the so-called "Jena Six."

Bell, 17, has to present in Court on December 6 on charges of aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy in the attack from last December.

Bell was charged as an adult with attempted murder in the first place, but that charge was reduced before a jury convicted him in June of aggravated second-degree battery. The authorities threw out that verdict in September and Bell was ordered tried as a juvenile.

The Associated Press and 24 other news organizations went to court for permission to attend hearings in Bell’s case and to review transcripts of previous hearings and other court records in the central Louisiana case.

"This is a victory for the media and for the public and for a citizen's right to know what is going on," said Mary Ellen Roy, an attorney for the media.