Biography
Ralph Edward Washington was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 7, 1961, for participating in a Freedom Ride, arrested at Jackson Municipal Airport after flying in from St. Louis with two other riders — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library, which establishes the arrest and the individual identification photograph. He was then a twenty-four-year-old employee of the St. Louis County Hospital, and travelled with Robert Lee Jenkins. A later sworn County Court docket summary records a directed verdict for him on January 23, 1962. Any transfer to Parchman, actual time served and physical release date remain unverified.
Photo credit
Deputy clerk Robert Lilly’s sworn October 26, 1964 affidavit reports the following Hinds County Court disposition: County Court docket 12,815: directed verdict for the defendant, January 23, 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.
