Biography
Verna Hollis 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. Survivor and commemorative accounts identify her with the long-held group and describe approximately two months of confinement; the exact endpoints vary among accounts. 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.
Hollis was 15 during the confinement. Her obituary and StoryCorps interview confirm her participation; the interview records that she was pregnant in the stockade, although she did not know it at the time.
