Annie Lou Ragans Laster

AKA: Annie Lue Ragans

Released

Gender:Female

Race:Black

Era:1960s

State:Georgia

Time Imprisoned:

2 Months

Support

Civil Rights

Biography

Annie Lou Ragans Laster was one of the Black school-aged girls imprisoned in southwest Georgia in 1963 after participating in demonstrations against racial segregation in Americus. Authorities moved girls arrested during the campaign to the Lee County Stockade in neighboring Leesburg, concealed their location from their families, and held them without formal criminal charges. Survivor and commemorative accounts identify her with the long-held group and describe approximately two months of confinement; the exact endpoints vary among accounts. The children endured overcrowding, inadequate food and water, broken sanitation, little or no bedding, and delayed medical attention. SNCC photographer Danny Lyon documented the confinement through the bars; publication of his photographs helped force public attention and the girls’ release.

Photo: Danny Lyon, August 1963; via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Original-image crop; identified by the source (sixth named standing subject from left in caption). Source: https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional/girls-imprisoned-leesburg-stockade-get-state-historical-marker/uGgSuxRrOxw6LANKGmuHpK/ . Copyright status unconfirmed; used for educational biographical identification at the site owner's direction. No permission or open license claimed.

## The Leesburg Stockade In the summer of 1963, young people in Americus, Georgia demonstrated against segregation, including the Martin Theater’s separate entrances and ticket windows. Local authorities arrested hundreds of participants. More than 30 Black girls were held at different times in the Lee County Stockade in nearby Leesburg without formal charges or a court hearing. Contemporary sworn statements show that the girls did not all enter or leave together. They describe changing populations of roughly 32 to 35 children, overflowing or unusable toilets, contaminated bedding, undercooked food, rusty water, and periods when the children slept directly on concrete. The profile’s custody dates and duration are therefore individual where evidence permits; no universal 45-day range has been imposed. SNCC photographer Danny Lyon photographed the girls and the stockade conditions. The resulting photographs circulated through movement publications and the Black press and helped expose where the children were being held.

Death-date evidence boundary

The March 26, 2015 Congressional Record tribute to the Leesburg Stockade women names this woman among five honorees who were already deceased. This establishes only that her death preceded the tribute; it does not give a death year, month or day, and no artificial date has been entered. The tribute identifies the fifteen long-held girls and describes close to two months of confinement in 1963, but supplies no individual intake or discharge day. Existing source-qualified custody dates are unchanged.

Congressional Record, March 26, 2015, page E434