Three women among Lynchburg’s Patterson Six

Past

Names behind the collective label.

1 minute read · Gretna Junction Research Desk

AI-assisted · Last verified Primary museum body checked October 17, 2026.

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In this story

Who participated

Lynchburg Museum’s March 2022 account names Barbara A. Thomas, Rebecca M.

Owen and Mary Edith Bentley among six students arrested after seeking coffee at Patterson’s Drug Store on December 14, 1960. Thomas attended Virginia Theological Seminary and College; Owen and Bentley attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Keep the names attached

The museum records that the students continued their schoolwork while jailed. That detail keeps education inside the story of protest: these were students whose studies continued under confinement, not simply names attached to a memorable group label.

Their individual names deserve to remain beside that label.

Sources & verification

Lynchburg Museum

Historical account dated March 15, 2022.

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