Eleanor Rush

Case summary

Incident

In May 1954, Eleanor Rush, a 17-year-old Black teenager, began serving a six-month sentence at Women’s Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. On June 10, officials sent Rush to the isolation ward, where she was confined to a 7-by-9-foot cell. Assistant Superintendent Helen Reinhardt testified in September 1954 that Rush’s cell contained only a mattress, toilet, and reinforced window due to her “previous experience of destroying property.” During a prior prison sentence, a physician at the Asylum for the Colored Insane determined Rush an “unstable personality,” not psychotic, and returned her to the prison.

After 57 days, officials returned Rush to the prison dormitory. She was sent back to isolation eight days later. Mabel Wright, a 17-year-old Black teenager, was confined in the cell across from Rush. Wright testified that on the evening of Aug. 20, neither she nor Rush had eaten since 7 a.m. Wright, crying, called for Superintendent Ivan D. Hinton. When Hinton arrived, he instructed Wright to “act nice” and left. Wright stated that she began conversing with Rush across the hall. When they heard Hinton return, Wright told Rush to be quiet. Rush replied, “No need being quiet, they are already here with handcuffs.”

The accounts of prison officials differed. The nurse on duty, Hazel Anderson, wrote in an Aug. 22 witness statement that Rush was loudly using “profane language” and singing all evening. Anderson stated that around 9 p.m. she called Hinton for assistance. According to Anderson, Hinton arrived an hour later, asked Wright and Rush to be quiet, and then went to his office with Anderson and four guards.

Hinton said he called the prison physician to see if he “would be willing to give the girls something to sleep,” but could not reach him. Rush and Wright, Hinton testified, were “still raving and knocking the door, kicking and raising sand.” He decided to use restraining belts on them.

Hinton, Anderson, and four guards — Paul Jones, G.H. Holmes, Ashley Horne, and Thomas Horneday — testified that they administered punishment together, going to Rush’s cell first. During a June 1955 hearing, Hinton said that Horneday and Jones used an “iron claw” on a “bucking and rearing” Rush. These “mechanical cuffs,” Horne explained, constricted with movement. Jones and Horneday held Rush’s arms down while Hinton applied the restraining belt and inserted a rolled huck towel in Rush’s mouth. A guard tied the gag.

The group left, locked the door, and went to Wright’s cell. There, they applied a restraining belt and towel gag on Wright before confiscating her bed and locking the door.

Hinton said Rush removed her gag before they left Wright’s cell, yelling, “you ain’t done a goddamn thing to me.” Hinton asked for a second towel and, as prison staff later testified, Horneday and Jones held Rush’s arms while Horne stood in front of her to apply the two gags. Hinton said Rush was “backing up and twisting around and shaking her head every way.”

Horne stated that he placed a towel in Rush’s mouth between her teeth before placing another towel on top of her teeth, “just like a bit in a mule’s mouth.” Holmes tied the towels behind Rush’s head.

Wright testified that, lying on her stomach, she watched through the door gap as the guards put Rush on the mattress, tied her feet with “something white,” and applied one gag over her mouth and another over her nose. Five minutes later, Wright said, Hinton returned to Rush’s cell and squatted next to the mattress with his back to the door. Wright heard a slapping sound.

Nurse Ila Vinson testified that Rush was standing in the cell when she checked on her about a half hour later, and Rush kicked the door twice as she walked by.

Guard Paul Jones stated that about 25 minutes later, he looked in Rush’s cell and saw her lying face down, feet and calves on the mattress and upper legs and torso on the floor. Jones alerted Vinson, who unlocked the cell. Jones said that the gag had “dropped off” Rush’s mouth. Vinson tried to revive Rush but could not detect a pulse. She called Hinton.

Hinton alerted medical student G.C. Dickson, who worked at Central Prison. Dickson determined Rush was dead and called for Dr. Walter Neal. Upon arrival, Neal moved Rush’s entire body on the mattress and turned her for examination. In testimony, Neal said that prison officials told him Rush had been restrained, but all the restraints had been removed by the time he arrived.

Aftermath

Rush’s death certificate indicated she died at midnight on Aug. 21 following an “accident” in which she “apparently bumped head against (the) wall.” Cause of death was recorded as “Dislocation of Cervical Vertebrae” due to “compression of spinal cord.”

Rex Hospital pathologist Rene Hardre completed an autopsy on Aug. 21. Hardre determined that the guards and Hinton dislocated Rush’s neck while gagging her, and suggested “two sets of theories” for cause of death: either the guards or Rush herself caused the force resulting in fatal cord compression.

Local newspapers reported an uprising at the prison following the news of Rush’s death.

Rush was buried at a family cemetery in Albemarle.

On Aug. 24, state Director of Prisons William Bailey initiated a State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) inquiry.

The coroner’s inquest took place on Sept. 7 and 8. The courtroom, according to the Raleigh Times, was “jammed with spectators.” A jury of five white men and one Black man deliberated for 40 minutes before determining that Rush “came to her death due to her violent efforts against necessary restraint,” not at the hands of prison officials.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover alerted the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Criminal Division by forwarding a Daily Worker article about Rush. The FBI field office in Charlotte began investigating on Sept. 23, interviewing Bailey and the coroner and requesting Rush’s prison records and autopsy report. The FBI forwarded its report to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Julian T. Gaskill, who determined that the case did not represent a civil rights violation.

On Sept. 25, 1954, Geneva Gould, Rush’s mother, filed a civil suit. In response, the State Highway and Public Works Department’s Industrial Commission held a hearing in Raleigh on June 6, 1955. Hardre told the commission “it would not have been possible for the prisoner to have self-inflicted the type of injury which I found caused her death.” The Commission found in Gould’s favor on Sept. 8, 1955 and awarded her $3,000 in damages.

After reviewing the FBI’s report, DOJ attorney Leo Meltzer determined, “Facts of this case are just as consistent with innocence as with guilt of a civil rights violation.” He signed the notice to close Rush’s file on Oct. 18, 1954.

Attorneys for the prison officials appealed the state’s decisions in Gould’s civil suit twice before it reached the North Carolina Supreme Court in fall 1956. The Court affirmed the lower court and state commission decisions, finding in Gould’s favor.

Hinton died in 1965. Gould died in 1971 at the age of 61. She was buried at East Side Cemetery.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

Archival Records

• Eleanor Rush Death Inquest; Division of Prisons Director’s Subject File; State Archives of North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina
• Geneva Gould, Administratrix of the Estate of Eleanor Rush, Deceased v. North Carolina State Highway and Public Works Commission; Supreme Court Case Files, 1940-1981; State Archives of North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina

Genealogical Records

• Death Certificates for Stanly County, North Carolina, United States, 1954, North Carolina State Board of Health
• Death Certificates for Stanly County, North Carolina, United States, 1971, North Carolina State Board of Health
• Population Schedule for Stanly County, North Carolina, United States Federal Census, 1950
• Population Schedule for Union County, North Carolina, United States Federal Census, 1940

Newspaper Articles

• “45 Inmates Join Parade of Witnesses at Death Probe,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 11, 1954
• “$58,000 Damage Asked in Death of Prison Inmate,” The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), September 23, 1954
• “Arguments Are Heard in Rush Case,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC), October 13, 1955
• “Attorney Says Rush Family to Seek Damages,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC) September 23, 1954
• “Bailey Promises Statement on Prison Policies,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC), September 16, 1954
• “Call Death of Inmate Accidental,” The Chicago Defender, September 25, 1954
• “Coroner Sets Inquest Date,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC), September 1, 1954
• “Court Says N.C. Responsible in Death of Woman Prisoner,” The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC), January 12, 1957
• “Death Case is Closed,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), September 9, 1954
• “Eleanor Rush Bill Delayed,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 21, 1955
• “Eleanor Rush Case Brief to Be Filed,” The Greensboro Record (Greensboro, NC), October 13, 1955
• “Eleanor Rush Case Headed to High Court,” Goldsboro News-Argus (Goldsboro, NC), March 29, 1956
• “Eleanor Rush Case is Closed,” The Gastonia Gazette (Gastonia, NC), January 12, 1957
• “Eleanor Rush Case is Up,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), June 7, 1955
• “Eleanor Rush Tragedy Must Not Be Repeated,” The Sentinel (Winston-Salem, NC), January 18, 1956
• “Eleanor Rush’s Death in Woman’s Prison Due To Employe Negligence,” The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), September 9, 1955
• “Eleanor Rush’s Own Action Called Cause of Her Death,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), September 9, 1954
• “Eleanor Rush’s Prison Death Case Before Court,” Hickory Daily Record (Hickory, NC), July 26, 1956
• “Estate of Woman Beaten in Prison Given $3,000,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), January 19, 1957
• “Gag May Be Key to Prison Death of Girl Doctor Says,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 11, 1954
• “Gould Funeral Slated Tuesday,” Stanly News and Press (Albemarle, NC), August 10, 1971
• “Hinton Asks Public Hearing,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC), August 28, 1954
• “Inmates Present Views on Death of 18-Year-Old Girl,” Atlanta Daily World, September 9, 1954
• “Inquest Opens in Death Case,” Rocky Mount Telegram (Rocky Mount, NC), September 7, 1954
• “Investigation of Eleanor Rush Case Not Ended,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 25, 1954
• “Light Shed on Death of Girl in Jail,” Atlanta Daily World, August 31, 1954
• “More Witnesses Called in Hearings on Prison Death,” The Robesonian (Lumberton, NC), September 8, 1954
• “Mother Gets $3,000 in Girl’s Cell Death,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 17, 1955
• “N.C. Employees Being Sued in Death of Eleanor Rush,” Stanly News and Press (Albemarle, NC), May 24, 1955
• “Negro’s Jail Death Probed,” Statesville Record and Landmark (Statesville, NC), August 25, 1954
• “North Carolina Police Admit Cell Murder,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 7, 1954
• “Ponder $3,000 Award in Death,” Baltimore Afro-American, October 22, 1955
• “Prison Gag Victim’s Family Gets Damages,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 17, 1955
• “Prison Head Airs Views on Girl’s Death,” Baltimore Afro-American, September 18, 1954.
• “Prison Official Resigns,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 12, 1956
• “Prison Officials Blamed in Death,” The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC), September 9, 1955
• “Questionable Procedure,” Winston-Salem Journal (Winston-Salem, NC), May 30, 1955
• “Solicitor Asks SBI Investigation of Prison Death of Girl Inmate,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), August 24, 1954
• “State Appeals Rush Decision to Commission,” Stanly News and Press (Albemarle, NC), September 20, 1955
• “State Employes Sued in Death of Eleanor Rush,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 19, 1955
• “Supreme Court to Hear Appeal on Rush Decision,” Stanly News and Press (Albemarle, NC), July 27, 1956
• “Testimony of First Day,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), September 8, 1954
• “Under the Dome,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), May 27, 1955
• “What the SBI Learned In Its Probe,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), September 9, 1954
• “Women Prisoners Riot,” New York Times, August 22, 1954
• Allen Alexander, “Negro Girl’s Strange Death Sparks Woman’s Prison Riot,” Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, NC), August 22, 1954
• Jim Chaney, “Doctor Testifies in Death of Prisoner Eleanor Rush,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), September 8, 1954
• Jim Chaney, “Gag Was Used on Eleanor Rush, Violating Prison’s Regulations,” The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), August 26, 1954
• Lin Holloway, “Bare Prison Torture,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), September 4, 1954
• Lynn Nisbet, “Overhauling Prison System,” Rocky Mount Telegram (Rocky Mount, NC), October 2, 1954
• Obituary for Helen Philecta Reinhardt, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), July 9, 1985
• Obituary for Ivan D. Hinton, Rocky Mount Telegram (Rocky Mount, NC), November 25, 1965