Fifty-six years after dozens of African American girls were imprisoned in Lee County for taking part in a civil rights protest, a historical marker will finally memorialize the event.
In July 1963, the civil rights movement took hold in Sumter County. In Americus, the county seat, African American youth made up the bulk of the protesters. During a series of marches and protests against the town’s segregated movie theater, hundreds of young people were rounded up and arrested. The majority of them were never formally charged or brought before a judge, but they were jailed by local authorities for weeks at a time. Their parents weren’t initially told where they were being held.
