“On June 18, 1963, law enforcement arrested 200 protesters during a sit-in at a downtown store, and another 250 were arrested for lying down in front of the nearby county courthouse. The protesters offered no resistance as they were taken to the county jail in patrol wagons.
Nevertheless, as sheriff’s deputies took the activists to jail, they tortured many of them – including several children —with the electric tips of cattle prods.
Authorities in Gadsden administered shocks to protesters’ bare feet, necks, stomachs, and genitals, sometimes laughing while doing so.
“In Alabama, there was a sadistic kind of joy in inflicting pain,” Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee activist Prathia Hall later wrote about the incident.
Connect the Dots 101 
Leave a comment