Biography
Henry Thomas was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on May 24, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Rides and challenging segregation in interstate transportation — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library. The catalog establishes the arrest, participation, and individually identified police photograph. In his May 26, 2011 oral history for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Claude Albert Liggins identified Henry (Hank) Thomas as his cellmate at Parchman and recalled being moved with him to another prison camp. The exact physical release date remains unresolved.
The Jackson police placard in the verified photograph reads 5-24-61 where the catalog dates the record May 25, 1961; the placard date is entered.
Claude Liggins identified Henry (Hank) Thomas as his Parchman cellmate in his May 26, 2011 oral history.
The jointly filed petition individually lists this rider and explicitly states that all petitioners entered pleas of not guilty for their Hinds County Court trials de novo. The previously blank plea field records that county-trial plea only; it does not change the later disposition or establish physical custody dates. The reproduced Thomas opinion, PDF pages 56–57, also supplies the previously blank statutory charge.
