Biography
Cecil Winston Carter Jr. was a New Orleans civil-rights activist and one of four students arrested after challenging a segregated lunch counter at McCrory’s on September 17, 1960. The protesters refused to leave after being denied service. They were convicted under Louisiana’s criminal-mischief statute; the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the convictions in Lombard v. Louisiana on May 20, 1963. A participant’s later oral history reports that the four stayed in jail rather than accept bail. His exact jail admission and release dates and detention duration remain unverified.
Documented civil-rights custody
Cecil Winston Carter Jr. was a New Orleans civil-rights activist and one of four students arrested after challenging a segregated lunch counter at McCrory’s on September 17, 1960. The protesters refused to leave after being denied service. They were convicted under Louisiana’s criminal-mischief statute; the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the convictions in Lombard v. Louisiana on May 20, 1963. A participant’s later oral history reports that the four stayed in jail rather than accept bail. His exact jail admission and release dates and detention duration remain unverified.
Sources: Lombard v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 267 (1963); Participant oral history, Verite News, March 8, 2023; NAACP Legal Defense Fund, original record and briefs identifying Cecil Winston Carter Jr..
Photograph
Original-pixel crop from a 2003 New Orleans Panther forum group photograph by Nijme Rinaldi Nun, shared by Showdown In Desire. The source caption identifies this person second from the left in the back row. The small source portrait is soft; no detail was generated or retouched. Original photograph and positional caption. Copyrighted image; educational historical use, not an open-license or permission claim.
