Biography
James Farmer was the national director of the Congress of Racial Equality and the principal organizer of the 1961 Freedom Rides. Arrested as a Freedom Rider in Jackson, Mississippi, he served 39 days in jail — moved from the Jackson city jail to the Hinds County jail to the Parchman state penitentiary — and acted as spokesman for the jailed riders.
The certiorari petition individually names this rider and distinguishes the initial municipal sentence (sixty days suspended and a $200 fine) from the county-court trial de novo sentence (four months in jail; the petition is internally inconsistent about the county fine). These are imposed sentences, not proof that four months were served. Existing physical custody endpoints, actual-duration evidence and any later reversal remain unchanged. 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.
