The Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III walked into a jury room Tuesday afternoon at a Jena, La., courthouse, and the face of the teenager seated at the table “just lit up,” said Marcus Jones, the father of that teen, Mychal Bell.

Bell is the first of the Jena Six to be convicted for a Dec. 4, 2006 fight, in which black students were accused of beating a white student following weeks of racially charged incidents in the small Louisiana town.

Problems were touched off after nooses were hung in a tree after black students sat in an area that was a traditional gathering place for white students, around the start of the school year.

The white students who hung the nooses were suspended for three days. The black students who retaliated were expelled and charged with felonies.

“Sharpton told my son, ‘I told you I’d be back,’” Jones told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Martin Luther King III told him he would stay involved in the situation until he is freed.”

Jesse Jackson is scheduled to visit Jena on Sept. 4, according to published reports.