Biography
James G. Jones, identified in the County Court docket as James Garrard Jones, was one of the Episcopal clergymen arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on September 13, 1961 after challenging segregation at the Trailways terminal. He was convicted in Municipal Court on September 15 and sentenced to four months in jail and a $200 fine. His later County Court docket records a not-guilty finding and discharge on May 22, 1962. This later court disposition is separate from his earlier release on appeal bond.
Deputy clerk Robert Lilly’s sworn October 26, 1964 affidavit reports the following Hinds County Court disposition: County Court docket 12,941: not guilty; discharged, May 22, 1962. This is the legal disposition of the Freedom Ride prosecution, not evidence that physical custody continued until that date or that a jail release occurred then. Earlier municipal convictions, where already documented, are preserved as earlier events. This corrects the inherited May 21 dismissal description for Jones specifically; the other priests’ May 21 dispositions are not copied to him.
