Biography
Ralph W. Allen was a SNCC worker and one of the "Americus Four", arrested on August 8, 1963 after a demonstration in Americus, Georgia and charged under the state's capital "seditious conspiracy" statute — a charge that carried the death penalty and was used precisely because it allowed the denial of bail. He was held for approximately three months, until November 1, 1963, when a three-judge federal panel invalidated the charge. On November 6, 1963 an all-white jury convicted him of assault with intent to murder and imposed two years, pending appeal; the outcome of that appeal and any further custody are not established in the catalog record.
