Lorena Barnum Sabbs

AKA: Lorena Barnum

Released

Date of birth:1952

Gender:Female

Race:Black

Era:1960s

State:Georgia

Time Imprisoned:

1 Day

Support

Civil Rights

Biography

Lorena Barnum Sabbs 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.

Her September 13, 1963 sworn statement says she was 11 and confined in the stockade from August 31 to September 1. She described 32 children sharing two drinking cups, unusable toilets, and rusty-tasting water.

Photo: Servant Emannu'el Branch / BHBP News, September 27, 2019. Original-image crop; identified by the source (first of five survivors in foreground, from left). Source: https://bhbpnews.com/historical-marker-for-stolen-girls-held-at-leesburg-ga-stockade-p518-203.htm . Copyright status unconfirmed; used for educational biographical identification at the site owner's direction. No permission or open license claimed.

## The Leesburg Stockade In the summer of 1963, young people in Americus, Georgia demonstrated against segregation, including the Martin Theater’s separate entrances and ticket windows. Local authorities arrested hundreds of participants. More than 30 Black girls were held at different times in the Lee County Stockade in nearby Leesburg without formal charges or a court hearing. Contemporary sworn statements show that the girls did not all enter or leave together. They describe changing populations of roughly 32 to 35 children, overflowing or unusable toilets, contaminated bedding, undercooked food, rusty water, and periods when the children slept directly on concrete. The profile’s custody dates and duration are therefore individual where evidence permits; no universal 45-day range has been imposed. SNCC photographer Danny Lyon photographed the girls and the stockade conditions. The resulting photographs circulated through movement publications and the Black press and helped expose where the children were being held.

Custody record

In a 2018 interview, Sabbs recalled uncertainty whether confinement lasted four or five days. This conflicts with the existing shorter affidavit-based interval; it has not been treated as a separately proven imprisonment or replaced with the group’s forty-five-day term.

Sources: Source 1; Source 2; Source 3; Source 4; Source 5.

Custody-duration precision

Barnum’s September 13, 1963 affidavit identifies her confinement as August 31 through September 1. This supports the recorded calendar dates, but not a minimum of 24 hours without arrival and departure times. The one-day display is a date-based count, not a separately documented number of hours.

Individual sworn statement