Biography
Ray Allen Cooper was a nineteen-year-old artist living in Spokane, Washington and was arrested on July 15, 1961 after riding by Greyhound from New Orleans to Jackson — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library. The catalog establishes the arrest, the participation, and the individually identified police photograph, while later County Court records establish the prosecution’s disposition. Any transfer to Parchman and the physical release date remain unresolved.
Deputy clerk Robert Lilly’s sworn October 26, 1964 affidavit reports the following Hinds County Court disposition: County Court docket 12,841: nolle prosequi (prosecution discontinued), May 21, 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.
