Biography
Margaret Winonah Beamer was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 9, 1961, for participating in a Freedom Ride, arrested at the Illinois Central terminal after travelling by train from Nashville with four other riders — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library, which establishes the arrest and the individual identification photograph. She was a Central State College student. Accounts outside the CRDL record report that she entered jail on June 11, refused bail and appeal, and remained imprisoned until December 25, 1961 — reportedly the longest full term served by any 1961 Freedom Rider. That chronology is recorded here as reported and needs checking against contemporary court or penitentiary records before it is relied on; it is not entered as custody dates. The disposition, any transfer to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the time served and the release date are not established in the CRDL record and are left unresolved here rather than inferred.
