Biography
Thomas Van Roland was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 20, 1961, for participating in the Freedom Rides and challenging segregation in interstate transportation — one of the arrests recorded by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and preserved in the Civil Rights Digital Library. The catalog establishes the arrest, the participation, and the individually identified police photograph, but not the court disposition, any transfer to Parchman, or the physical release date; those fields are unresolved pending county-jail, court, or penitentiary records.
Calculated release date for the stay beginning August 17, 1960: August 26, 1960. Using inclusive calendar-day counting for the recorded 10-day stay, adding 9 days gives this date, consistent with the August26 trial and return to protest by the next day. The inclusive counting method follows that chronology. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
Calculated release date
Calculated release date for the stay beginning August 17, 1960: August 26, 1960. Using inclusive calendar-day counting for the recorded 10-day stay, adding 9 days gives this date, consistent with the August26 trial and return to protest by the next day. The inclusive counting method follows that chronology. This is a calculated date from the recorded admission and duration, not a separately documented physical-discharge date.
The jointly filed petition individually lists this rider and explicitly states that all petitioners entered pleas of not guilty for their Hinds County Court trials de novo. The previously blank plea field records that county-trial plea only; it does not change the later disposition or establish physical custody dates.
