The Leesburg Stockade was an event in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

in which a group of African-American teenage and pre-teen girls were arrested for protesting

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

Americus, Georgia Americus is the county seat of Sumter County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 16,230. It is the principal city of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Schley an ...

, and were imprisoned without charges for 45 days in poor conditions in the Lee County Public Works building, in

Leesburg, Georgia Leesburg is a city in Lee County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,480 at the 2020 census, up from 2,896 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Lee County and is part of the Albany, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area. H ...

. The building was then called the Leesburg Stockade, and gave its name to the event. The young prisoners became known as the Stolen Girls...

Background

In July, 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (the SNCC), in cooperation with the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

, organized a protest march in Americus from the Friendship Baptist Church to a segregated movie theater. As part of the protest, a group of young women joined the line to attempt to purchase tickets at the movie theater, and were arrested for doing so. After being held briefly in Dawson, Georgia, the protesters were moved to the Leesburg Stockade. Estimates of the number of young women who were held there range from 15 to about 30 or as many as 33.

Imprisonment

Some of the prisoners were as young as 12. Conditions in the stockade were poor: the prisoners had only concrete floors to sleep on, water only in drips from a shower, a single non-functional toilet, and poor food. The prison authorities did not inform the parents of the prisoners of their arrest or location, and they only found out through the help of a janitor. The young women were threatened with murder, and at one point a rattlesnake was thrown into their cell. After the SNCC and Senator

Harrison A. Williams Harrison Arlington "Pete" Williams Jr. (December 10, 1919November 17, 2001) was an American politician and lawyer. He was a Democrat who represented New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives (1953–1957) and the United States Sena ...

used a set of photos by

Danny Lyon Danny Lyon (born March 16, 1942) is an American photographer and filmmaker. All of Lyon's publications work in the style of photographic New Journalism, meaning that the photographer has become immersed in with, and is a participant of, the doc ...

to publicize the situation,. the young women were released, and did not face any criminal charges, but were nevertheless charged a fee for their use of the facilities.

Recognition

Two of the Leesburg Stockade women, Carol Barner Seay and Sandra Russel Mansfield, were added to the Hall of Fame of the

National Voting Rights Museum The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, established in 1991 and opened in 1993, is an American museum in Selma, Alabama, which honors, chronicles, collects, archives, and displays the artifacts and testimony of the activists who partici ...

in 2007.. The

National Museum of African American History and Culture The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...

of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

publicized the story of the stolen girls in 2016, and they were recognized by a resolution of the Georgia state legislature.. On Friday, September 27, 2019 the

Georgia Historical Society The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and tau ...

erected a Historical Marker at the stockade as part of their Civil Rights Trail. Colby Pines managed the Historical Marker application and installation process, and the marker was sponsored by the Lee County High School AP English Program, the Lee County High School Beta Club, and First Monumental Faith Ministries.

Girls of the stockade

The arrested girls included: * Carol Barner Seay * Lorena Barnum * Gloria Breedlove * Pearl Brown * Bobbie Jean Butts * Agnes Carter * Pattie Jean Colier * Mattie Crittenden * Barbara Jean Daniels * Gloria Dean * Carolyn Deloatch * Diane Dorsey * Juanita Freeman * Robertiena Freeman * Henrietta Fuller * Shirley Ann Green * Verna Hollis * Evette Hose * Mary Frances Jackson * Vyrtis Jackson * Dorothy Jones * Emma Jean Jones * Melinda Jones- Williams * Emmarene Kaigler * Barbara Ann Peterson * Annie Lue Ragans * Judith Reid * Laura Ruff * Sandra Russell * Willie Mae Smith * Eliza Thomas * Billie Jo Thornton * Lulu M. Westbrook * Ozeliar Whitehead * Carrie Mae Williams

References

{{reflist Civil rights movement African-American history of Georgia (U.S. state) Prisons in Georgia (U.S. state) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Terrell County, Georgia NAACP 1963 protests 1963 in Georgia (U.S. state) History of racism in Georgia (U.S. state)