Biography
Robert Lee Jenkins was a twenty-seven-year-old student at St. Louis University — his age and student status are verified by the Civil Rights Digital Library — arrested on June 7, 1961 as a Freedom Rider at the Jackson Municipal Airport in Mississippi, after flying from St. Louis with two other riders to test the airport facilities. The claim that he was chairman of St. Louis CORE is reported but has not been confirmed in dependable primary sources, and the claim that he was later acquitted on a technicality is likewise unresolved. His exact release and acquittal dates remain unresolved, so no release date is entered. Born about 1934, a year derived from his reported age; no reliable date of death has been found.
