Biography
Yank Ellington was one of three Black defendants sentenced to death in Mississippi on murder charges supported by coerced confessions. The Daily Worker, February 18, 1936, page 1 reports that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the convictions of Ellington, Ed Brown and Henry Shields on February 17, 1936, because the confessions had been extracted through brutality, including lashing by deputy sheriffs. The report identifies National Association for the Advancement of Colored People assistance to their defense. The reversal does not establish acquittal or physical release; this issue supplies neither exact custody endpoints nor a completed served term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n042-NY-feb-18-1936-DW-Q.pdf
Brust identifies him as Arthur “Yank” Ellington and places him in Meridian jail after arrest.