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Honor the 15 Young Girls Illegally Imprisoned in the Leesburg Stockade
Final signature count: 9,081
9,081 signatures toward our 30,000 goal
Sponsor: Greatergood.org
They deserve recognition for the peaceful contributions they made to the Civil Rights Movement!
In the summer of 1963, 15 young civil rights activists (ages 12 to 15) were illegally imprisoned for two months.
They were part of a group of 200 people peacefully protesting segregation when they were hauled off to jail in Dawson, Georgia. The following day, they were shuttled to an abandoned, one-room stockade in Leesburg, Georgia - all without their parents’ knowledge. There, they were held against their will for two months, without bedding, fresh clothes, sanitary products, adequate food, or working plumbing.
They were finally released after photographs of their plight surfaced, but their story quickly faded into obscurity. Now, 50 years later, these women are breaking their silence to bring awareness to the small, powerful actions of peace that have helped shape this country.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded yearly to individuals or groups who have made “especially meritorious contributions to the… national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” The Leesburg Stockade Girls sacrificed two months of their young lives by taking a stand all those years ago. Their contributions to the civil rights movement cannot go unnoticed!
Sign the petition urging President Trump to award this medal to the nine remaining women of the Leesburg Stockade, and to posthumously award it to the six that have passed away.
