Biography
Eliza Thomas 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. Her individual custody duration is documented in a contemporary sworn statement or closely contemporaneous record. 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.
A September 13, 1963 statement bearing Eliza Thomas’s name and Elizabeth Thomas at the signature line describes about nine and a half days in the stockade. It reports roughly 32 people present on arrival and about 17 on departure; calendar dates are not given.
Custody-duration precision
The individual affidavit describes about nine and a half days in the Leesburg Stockade. The stored whole-day figure is rounded; it is not evidence of ten exact 24-hour days. The statement does not give individual admission or release dates.
