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Radio-topia from

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PRX.

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From PRX's Radio-topia, this is Radio

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Diaries. I'm Joe Richman.

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60 years ago, in the summer of 1963,

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civil rights protests were picking up speed across

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the country. Sometimes

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the marches included children as young as 12 years

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old. They protested like adults

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and were treated like adults by the police, attacked

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by police dogs and fire hoses, and

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often sent to jail. Usually

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the children were bailed out by activist groups

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or released to their parents.

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But on July 19th, a march to desegregate

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a theater in America's Georgia went differently.

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The protest was full of young black

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girls. Many of them were arrested,

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sent to jail, and released that evening. But

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some of the girls didn't return home that night,

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or even a few days later.

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For most of that summer, their families had

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no idea where they were.

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Stay on the show, The Girls of the

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Leesburg Stockade.

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My name is Lulu Westbrook. As

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a 12-year-old girl, I was involved

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in the civil rights movement. We

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were gunhole young people to want

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to change the system. My

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name is James A. Westbrook. I

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am the brother of Lulu. I

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was the field secretary for the Student

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Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

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When July 1963 came around,

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I organized a march on

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Cotton Avenue in America's. We

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had made up in our minds that

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we were going to desegregate the theater.

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My parents, they were passive

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about it because they had children to take

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care of. My mother, she said

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to me, James, those people

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will kill you before letting you do

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some of the things that you have in mind.

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She said, but I want you to go, and

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whatever happened. Make sure

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Lulu stays in your presence. And

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I said to her, I will, mom.

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I ain't gonna let nobody

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turn me around. The

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march took place at noon.

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Lulu was skipping and running.

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We sang songs.

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We sang freedom songs.

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I ain't gonna let nobody

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turn me around. We found out

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in tools. We carried our signs.

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We were going to Forsyth Street,

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where the theater was located.

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I ain't gonna let nobody turn me

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around.

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You know, you got your friends, your schoolmates,

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and it was just fun.

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I ain't gonna let nobody turn me

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around. And then

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all of a sudden these police, they

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had dogs and clubs and

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they had hoses. And they

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told us, disperse. You're

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disturbing the peace. Your march

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will not permit. It was just

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a moment of turmoil. Somebody

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threw a rock or a bottle in the crowd.

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Some people were hit with rocks. I

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was about 30 feet from Lulu.

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When I saw this white state

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trooper get her across the forehead with

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a 38-inch baseball bat.

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When you see someone knock

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a 12-year-old girl to the ground and

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that's your sister, your youngest sister,

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I was shocked. I

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was hit. I was wet. I

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had lost my slippers. Some

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of them was taken by my feet and

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arms and thrown into a

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patter wagon, and I was one of them. All

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of us were stuffed in there, all girls.

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And then once they got that patter wagon filled

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up, they closed them up and drove

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out with them.

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Sockade

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was in another town, in another

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county. You didn't see anything

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but woods and trees and vast

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land all around. After

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the 34th day, we was a little weak

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and crying a little bit. The

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guard would bring us hamburgers

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and little cardboard boxes that

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was half raw. We

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was putting our waste in the shower

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drain because the toilet was overflowing,

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it didn't work.

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As time went on, we was fearful

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of maybe not getting out.

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After the third week, we were seriously

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concerned about it. I went home

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every night so I could tell Mom and

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give her an update. Hadn't seen

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her, didn't find out anything. My

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mom kept inquiring, where

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are they? Where's my child?

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Oh, freedom, oh,

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freedom. Day by day by

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day, we did a lot of stuff

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to pass the time away. We

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sang freedom

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songs. We prayed, we did little

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hand games and we talked. There

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were times when some kids cried.

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There were times when I felt low. But

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when we did feel sad, we had enough

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girls to run us to hold

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our hands and then

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you cheer up. We weren't just,

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oh, well, it's me. You

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make the best of it, just like anybody

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incarcerated. Oh,

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freedom, oh,

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for me. I

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started to get erased and

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just was traumatized

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from the stench of the place, the

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sweaty walls and having

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that stinky feeling on

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you.

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But I really felt that somebody

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had to know where we were. That's

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what we all had told ourselves.

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That's the hope we had. One

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night someone made the statement that

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Slappy, this old

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white guy, knew where they were.

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Slappy had had a conversation with

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members of law enforcement that

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said they thought that these girls

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were in Leesburg.

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And that information got to Danny Lyon.

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My name is Danny Lyon, and

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when I was a young man, I

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was the staff photographer for

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the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

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Committee,

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lovingly called SNCC. There

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was a feeling in the 60s that

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photography could be a powerful tool.

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James Foreman, who was executive secretary,

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he said there's a rumor that something's

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going on down in Leesburg,

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and some girls have been arrested

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and go down and check it out. He

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took his camera, took his

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Volkswagen, and had a

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young black guy to drive him to

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Leesburg. Leesburg isn't

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even a town. It's just an intersection

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with a couple stop signs, like a cotton

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gin and a couple stores.

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This young man comes up to me, who was

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a teenager. His name was Bobo.

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And I tell him that I'd heard about these girls,

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and he says, oh, they're right down the road.

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The prison itself was a big cinder

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block rectangle. I

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waited a minute or two, and I got

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out, and I kind of hunched over

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and walked right up to the side. There

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must have been a little ledge, because I stood on

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it, and I looked in the window.

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All these girls immediately peered at the window.

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We rushed up to the window and said,

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hey, this is me. I'm a little love carol.

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And he said he was sent there to take pictures

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of the condition of the place we were living in.

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I stuck the camera between the bars,

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and I picked up a little bit of the edge of the broken

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glass in front of me. the lens so there's

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a foreground. And in the middle of

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standing all these girls,

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Lulu had a headband. She's

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sitting on the ground and there's

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another couple of girls embracing each other.

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Perfect. Foreground, middle ground,

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the girls in background. Let's

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say you make a good picture.

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Word got out that Dandelion had

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seen them and taken pictures at

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the leaves where it stuck in. And

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it was on the basis of that evidence,

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that information, that

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got in the hands of Dandelion's

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camera and ultimately to

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other legal authorities that led to their

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release.

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By that time, it was 45 days.

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We were told that there was a padded wagon

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to take us back.

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Once we got in the van, we

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went right back to our town,

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the jail there, and that's where our parents were.

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When I saw my mom, we

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hugged and I cried. She cried.

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Our parents was allowed

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to take us home. I was

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happy.

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The Stockade Building is still there.

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I never can

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get it out of my mind because I

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was taken away from my home, my

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family.

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Was it to break me? Was it to

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make me fearful? Was it

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to teach me a lesson? Or was

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it just part of the plan for my life,

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period?

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My memory of that was traumatizing.

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But when you look back at it now and you realize

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it pretty much was a badge of honor

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rather than disgrace.

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People can vote in the South now and

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they just couldn't do that.

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Now the buses are integrated,

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the schools are integrated. A lot

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of things came from that. We

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have been a part of something that mattered.

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Lulu and the other girls of the Leesburg Stockade

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were never formally charged back in 1963, and

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local law enforcement never explained why they

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were held for so long.

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Thanks to the people you heard in this story, Lulu

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Westbrook-Griffin, James Westbrook, and

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photographer Danny Lyon.

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To see some of the photographs Danny Lyon took in 1963

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of the girls in the Leesburg Stockade, visit

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our website, radiodiaries.org.

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♪ Photograph my baby

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Will she laugh, she's smiling

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now

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Our story was produced by Micah Hazel. It

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was edited by me, Joe Richman, Debra George,

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and Ben Shapiro. The Radio Diaries team

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also includes Nellie Gillis, Elisa Escarce,

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and Lena Engelstein. We have support

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from the National Endowment for the Humanities and

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from listeners like you. Radio

13:13

Diaries is a proud member of Radiotopia from

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PRX, a collective of the best independent

13:18

podcasts around. You can find them

13:20

all at radiotopia.fm. And

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a big thanks for the songs we used to close out our

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story, Stolen Time by Craig

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Robert McConnell

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and Tommy Steele and June Laverick singing

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Photograph. I'm Joe Richman, thanks

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for listening.

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♪ Extra special

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photograph