[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 14538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            IN RECOGNITION OF THE LEESBURG ``STOLEN GIRLS''

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, it is with a sense of solemnity that I 
recognize a low moment during the civil rights movement in my home 
State of Georgia 52 years ago.
  During the height of the movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was 
arrested for protesting racial segregation in Albany, GA, on December 
16, 1961, and held in the Sumter County jail. The arrest galvanized the 
community and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC, efforts 
to establish the Sumter County movement. Largely comprised of preteen 
and teenage students, the movement repeatedly challenged segregation 
from 1963 to 1965. On July 15, 1963, a number of school-aged girls were 
arrested, transported to a jail in Dawson, GA, and held overnight. 
Early the next morning, they were transported to Leesburg, GA, without 
parental consent. The girls were held 20 miles from their homes in a 
Civil War-era stockade following their arrest for protesting, and they 
were not released until mid-September 1963, which is why I am 
addressing it today.
  After a SNCC photographer revealed the terrible, unsanitary, and 
dangerous conditions, the young girls, dubbed the ``Stolen Girls,'' 
gained national attention. However, the incident has not received the 
attention it deserves.
  The young ladies who were jailed are ready to tell the stories of 
their untold mistreatment after 52 years. I encourage my fellow 
Georgians and Americans to learn more about the civil rights movement 
so that all might find healing.

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