Eleanor Montgomery Rush
Eleanor Montgomery Rush was a young Black woman from Albemarle, North Carolina, who worked as a domestic worker and cleaner, and her mother described her as her baby and last child. In August 1954 she was held at the women's prison in Raleigh, where prison officials bound her with belts, gagged her with towels and placed her in an isolation cell. Staff found her dead in the cell on August 21, 1954. The death certificate listed an accident, but the autopsy pathologist, Rene Hardre, said her neck injury could not have been self-inflicted, while a coroner's jury attributed it to her own actions during restraint. Her mother, Geneva Gould, pursued a claim against the state for years and was awarded damages, and historians say her death helped spark a prison uprising; she was buried in a family cemetery in Albemarle.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by staff (disputed; neglect alleged). The pathologist Rene Hardre's autopsy said officials dislocated her neck while gagging her, the death certificate listed an accident, a coroner's jury called the restraint justified, and her mother's settlement with the state followed a finding that officials were negligent.
Reported by: Rex Hospital pathologist Rene Hardre (medical examiner or coroner); death certificate; coroner's jury (court); her mother's settlement with the state (family or their lawyers).
Custody: Serving a sentence.