Friday, June 18, 1965: Anthony Quin and Huey Krohn

Place: Jackson, Mississippi

Photographer: Matt Herron

Account (from "103 More Pickets Held in Jackson," New York Times: @)

     In one incident at the white-columned Governor's Mansion, a beefy, suntanned Mississippi highway patrolman and a wide-eyed, 5-year-old Negro boy scuffled over the child's tiny American flag.

     The boy, Anthony Quin, was in a group of six who huddled in a shaded entrance of the building. He sat solemnly on the bottom step with his flag. Next to him was Dr. June Finer, a pretty, 30-year-old Chicagoan who works here with the Medical Committee on Human Rights.

     Dr. Finer had been trying to get into the stockage at the state fair grounds to give medical attention to the prisoners. The city police have refused and say they have two local doctors working there. Dr. Finer, a nursette bag of medical supplies over her shoulder, decided to be arrested and see for herself.

     As the squad of patrolmen advance on the little group to make the arrests, Dr. Finer put her arm around the boy. "Gimme that flag," said Patrolman Huey Krohn, a driver for Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr. Anthony refused.

     The patrolman tried to wrest the flag from him but the child held on. He was dragged a few feet by the man and then lifted several feet off the ground. Finally the patrolman broke the stick of the flag and thrust the child from him. Anthony fell on the ground and began to cry. He was taken into the paddy wagon.

     The boy, the son of Mrs. Aylene Quin, chairman of the Freedom Democratic party in Pike County, was arrested once before during a voter registration drive in Magnolia. Last fall he was injured when his mother's house was bombed in McComb. His mother and a sister, Jacky, 9, were arrested with him today.

     The child was released several hours later in the custody of Alvin Bronstein, chief staff counsel of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee.

     "That man hit my elbow and that was the only thing that made me start crying," the boy said, looking down at his blue sneakers. What did he think of having his flag taken away? 'I don't think nothin' about it,' he said.

Note: Herron's series of photos was awarded second place in general news stories in the World Press Photo competition for 1965.

Matt Herron
* From www.worldpress.org: @ (photos) and @ (profile)
* Herron's account of incident (from "Telling Their Stories," The Urban School of San Francisco): @
* Herron's account (from Princeton Alumni Weekly): @
* mattherronwriter.com: @

* www.takestockphotos.com (Herron is director): @

Anthony and Alyene Quin (often spelled as "Aylene" on websites and in news accounts)
* Alyene Quin profile (from SNCC Legacy Project): @
* Alyene Quin profile (from Mississippi Civil Rights Project): @

* "Civil Rights Incidents in McComb" (1964, from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

Dr. June Finer

* Profile (from Jewish Women's Archive): @

* Medical Committee for Human Rights pamphlet (from Civil Rights Movement Veterans): @

* "The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care" (John Dittmer, 2009): @

* "Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement" (Debra L. Schultz and Blance Wiesen Cook, 2002): @

Other resources

* "Jackson Jails 103 Rights Marchers" (Associated Press, June 18, 1965): @
* 2014 blog entry from M.J. O'Brien, author of "We Shall Not Be Moved: The Jackson Woolworth Sit-In and the Movement It Inspired": @
* "When Youth Protest: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1970" (Mississippi Historical Society): @

* "Local People: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi" (John Dittmer, 1994): @ 

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