Triolo, Tony

Description

She is holding a sign that reads, "Help the Crying Child / Join in and March / Free Tommie Hines." The demonstration, which had been organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, began on September 30, the day this photograph was taken. When they arrived in Cullman on October 2, participants were arrested for not having a permit to march. Tommy Lee Hines, a 26-year old man who was said to have the mind of a 6-year-old child, had been charged with raping three white women in Decatur. Because his lawyer argued that he could not get a fair trial in Morgan County, it was moved to Cullman, where an all-white jury convicted him of one rape and sentenced him to thirty years in prison. Two years later, a different jury found him mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he was transferred to Partlow State School and Hospital in Tuscaloosa, where he stayed for more than a decade.

From Collection

Alabama Media Group Collection

Record Contributed By

Alabama Department of Archives and History, 624 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama