Death for a Dollar Ninety-Five

Jimmie Wilson was Sentenced to death in 1957 for Stealing $1.95

Jimmie Wilson being escorted from the Perry County Courthouse, 1957

IN THE 1950s, Montgomery, Alabama was the most strictly segregated city in America.

While the city’s population had risen by almost 50% after World War II, and the overwhelming majority of the new migrants were white, Montgomery remained 37% Black. Only 3.7% of those Blacks…