Biography
Per Laursen was a Danish journalist traveling with the Freedom Riders when Albany police arrested the interracial group at the train station on December 10, 1961. The riders spent the night in jail and were released on bail the following day. The final disposition has not been located.
Zinn’s contemporary account individually places this activist in the December 1961 Albany custody proceedings. He distinguishes the initial railway-terminal arrests, county-court proceedings and later group releases. Because the release accounts do not resolve every person’s exact custody trajectory, no exact individual discharge date or calculated total is inferred. Howard Zinn, Albany, Southern Regional Council SRC22, January 8, 1962, original PDF page 17. Source: https://www.crmvet.org/info/6201_zinn_albany.pdf#page=17
Custody record
Howard Zinn’s contemporary account individually names Laursen among Albany Freedom Riders held in county jail after the initial December 1961 overnight detention. The report describes additional days of confinement but does not fix Laursen’s individual second admission and release.
Dougherty County Jail (Albany). Howard Zinn individually names this Freedom Rider among those remaining in the county jail behind Elm Street for part or all of seven days after the Wednesday county-court bind-over in December 1961. Individual admission, release and total duration remain unknown.
