Jail Instead of Bail - The Tipping Point for Public Space Integration

April of 1962 was a flurry of activity for the CSC as its members maintained sit-ins, boycotts, and poster walks and intensified pressure on the city with new tactics. Faced with The Huntsville Times’s news Blackout of civil rights events, the CSC engineered a situation sure to grab headlines. On April 10, Martha Hereford, who was six months pregnant, and Joan Cashin with her four-month-old daughter Sheryll, sat in at H&H Walgreens with every intention of being arrested for refusing to leave. They were accompanied by CSC president Revered Ezekiel Bell, Reverend S.F. Lacey, and student activist Frances Sims. 

As expected, the sit-inners were arrested, baby Sheryll in tow. There, the men were released under a $300 bond but the three women refused to ask for an appeal bond, much to the dismay of Police Chief Grover Pylant who hoped to avoid an uproar over the situation. He resolved to release the three women “on their own recognizance” that day. 

The next week, as Jet magazine published a photo of Joan Cashin being arrested with her infant in arms, the three women arrived for their arraignment and again refused to post bond. This left the court with no choice but to send Martha Hereford, Joan Cashin, and Frances Sims back to jail, this time without baby Sheryll. At the Madison County Jail, the women faced inhospitable conditions as the jailers tried to convince them to post bond and leave, but with the support of the CSC and the Black community they held fast to their principles. 

Supporters brought the women three meals a day, and organized a telephone committee of people calling the jail and the mayor to inquire, “Is it true you have mothers in jail, you have a pregnant woman in jail?” An exasperated Mayor R.B. Searcy called Dr. John Cashin, urging him to post bond for his wife. After thirty-three hours in the Madison County jail, the three women finally relented and posted bond for themselves after The Huntsville Times published news of the event and national news outlets picked up the dramatic story of protests in the Rocket City.

By July of 1962, the City of Huntsville began “trial integrations” at lunch counters, with no violence. African American Residents began to go to theatres, to drink from the water fountain of their choice, and to take their children to play in public parks. Schools, however, were still segregated.