Hollis Watkins

Released
Date of birth:29. 07. 1941
Date of death:20. 09. 2023
Age:82† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1960s
State:Mississippi
Time Imprisoned:
4 Months 12 Days
Support
Civil Rights Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Southern Echo Nation of Islam
Hollis Watkins

Biography

Hollis Watkins was a Mississippi civil-rights organizer, voting-rights activist, and freedom-song leader born on July 29, 1941, near Summit in Lincoln County, Mississippi. He began attending NAACP youth meetings led by Medgar Evers as a teenager and became one of the first native Mississippians to work full-time for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1961.

Watkins worked with Bob Moses, Curtis Hayes, Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and other organizers on voter-registration campaigns throughout McComb, Hattiesburg, Greenwood, and Holmes County. He later served as a county organizer during the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer and supported the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's challenge to the state's segregated Democratic delegation. In 1989, he founded Southern Echo, which trained grassroots organizers throughout Mississippi and the South.

Watkins died at his home in Clinton, Mississippi, on September 20, 2023, with his wife Edna beside him. He was 82 and was buried at Chisholm Mission AME Church Cemetery near Summit.

Cases

Charges: McComb's first sit-in at the segregated Woolworth lunch counter, conducted with Curtis Hayes
Arrested: Aug 26, 1961
Incarcerated: Aug 26, 1961
Released: Sep 29, 1961
Sentence: 34 days in jail under harsh conditions; he reportedly lost 18 pounds. The exact discharge date has not been located — 34 days from the August 26, 1961 arrest places his release around September 28-29, 1961, entered at approximate precision.
Convicted: No — a later account states the charges were eventually dropped
Charges: Arrested with Curtis Hayes, Bob Moses and others after the Burglund High School walkout marchers knelt in prayer at McComb City Hall
Arrested: Oct 4, 1961
Incarcerated: Oct 4, 1961
Released: Nov 12, 1961
Sentence: The walkout of October 4, 1961 protested the expulsion of 15-year-old activist Brenda Travis. His family biography records another 39 days in jail, placing probable release around November 11-12, 1961 (entered at approximate precision); an exact discharge record remains unresolved.
Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman)
Charges: Disturbing the peace and possibly parading without a permit — the June 1963 Greenwood voter-registration march of about 200 Black residents that refused an order to disperse
Arrested: June 1963
Sentenced: June 1963
Incarcerated: June 1963
Released: August 1963
Sentence: Four months, imposed after a five-minute trial. Held briefly in the Greenwood city jail, about one week at the county penal farm, then transferred to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where — despite no capital offense — he spent 55 days in the maximum-security death-row unit, much of it in isolation or solitary confinement. Entered as June 1963 to circa August 1963; the Associated Press obituary places the Parchman episode in 1962, but his first-person account and the chronology of Greenwood's first large demonstration indicate 1963, and precise arrest and release dates await Leflore County or Parchman records.
Convicted: Yes — a four-month sentence imposed after what was described as a five-minute trial
Institution State: Mississippi

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