Winona in Montgomery County, Mississippi — The American South (East South Central)

Winona Jail Site

Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, March 31, 2023

1. Winona Jail Site Marker

Inscription. On June 9, 1963, police arrested civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and several colleagues while they attempted to integrate a nearby segregated bus terminal. The group was traveling home to Mississippi after attending nonviolent protest and registration classes in South Carolina. In the jail on this site, the police brutally beat and tortured them. Hamer barely survived her injuries but continued to challenge Mississippi's and the nation's White supremacists by demanding equal rights. She died in 1977.

Erected 2022 by Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Civil Rights • Law Enforcement. In addition, it is included in the Mississippi State Historical Marker Program series list. A significant historical date for this entry is June 9, 1963.

Location. 33° 29.121′ N, 89° 43.768′ W. Marker is in Winona, Mississippi, in Montgomery County. Marker is at the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Oak Drive, on the right when traveling south on Sterling Avenue. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 218 Sterling Ave, Winona MS 38967, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 9 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Montgomery County Confederate Monument (approx. 0.2 miles away); The "Final Spike"

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(approx. ¼ mile away); Immanuel Episcopal Church (approx. 0.3 miles away); Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway (approx. 0.4 miles away); Roebuck "Pops" Staples (approx. half a mile away); Winona Confederate Monument (approx. ¾ mile away); Ensign William Devotie Billingsley (approx. 0.9 miles away); Applewhite Cemetery (approx. 8.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Winona.

Also see . . .
1. Beatings in Winona jail. This multimedia report includes audio interviews with Hamer, who lost sight in one eye and suffered permanent kidney damage, and other activists who also were beaten. (SNCC Digital Gateway) (Submitted on April 5, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.)

2. Fannie Lou Hamer. A forced sterilization was one of the moments that set Hamer on the path to the forefront of the Mississippi Civil Rights movement, but the incident that brought her into a leadership role came a year later. (PBS, American Experience) (Submitted on April 5, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.)

Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, March 31, 2023

2. Winona Jail Site Marker

Fannie Lou Hamer image. Click for full size.

Warren K. Leffler via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (Public Domain), August 22, 1964

3. Fannie Lou Hamer

Scarred from the jail beating, Hamer addresses the Credentials Committee at the Democratic Party's 1964 convention in Atlantic City. She and other Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates were challenging the seating of the all-white Mississippi delegation. “Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we … [are] threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?” she asked the committee while recounting Winona. President Lyndon B. Johnson, alarmed that Hamer's story could cost him the support of Southern Democrats, called an impromptu press conference to divert media attention from her.

Credits. This page was last revised on April 5, 2023. It was originally submitted on April 5, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 95 times since then and 30 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on April 5, 2023, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.