Grant Anderson was born to Henry Anderson and Mary Luvenia in Mississippi in 1892 or 1893. He quit school at age 12 after the fourth grade and worked with his father on a farm until he enlisted in the army in Lexington, Kentucky in March 1915. He had two civilian arrests on his record, one for drunkenness in 1908 and the other for gambling in 1909; he paid a small fine in both cases. He had one SCM in the army for drunkenness. The morning after the violence in Houston, Anderson was found at the same house where Richard Brown was hiding, and was taken into custody along with him. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the third court-martial (later reduced to twenty years); he did not take the stand in his own defense.

A review of Anderson’s case in 1923 indicated that he would be eligible for parole on January 1, 1925, that he “has been guilty of six violations of the prison regulations,” and that he had at that time served five years and one month of his 20-year sentence. Clemency was “not recommended” at that time. In April 1924 his 20-year sentence was reduced by one year. In June that year the JAG recommended that the AG approve the Board of Parole’s decision to grant Anderson parole.