Biography
Albert Hougardy was an organizer with the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU), which led California farmworkers’ strikes in 1933. He was among eight defendants convicted in the Sacramento criminal-syndicalism prosecution on April 1, 1935. Judge Dal M. Lemmon imposed an indeterminate sentence of one to fourteen years on April 11. He was imprisoned at San Quentin, and the prison board later fixed his term at three and a half years. The California Court of Appeal reversed the convictions on September 28, 1937.
The Daily Worker of February 16, 1935, page 5, reports that Hougardy was selected for early bail in the Sacramento case so that he could speak publicly for the jailed defendants. It describes him as the Communist organizer considered the most experienced speaker and explains the decision as part of the defense campaign. The article's historical account gives high cash/property bail figures, but does not establish a fresh detention, an exact individual bail-release date or actual time served.
Daily Worker, August 23, 1934, page 1: The Sacramento dispatch individually lists this defendant among seventeen facing six criminal-syndicalism counts. It describes the Sacramento prisoners collectively as crowded fourteen to a cell, with no beds or blankets for two weeks and a hole in the floor for a toilet. The stated six-to-eighty-four-year range was potential exposure if convicted, not an imposed sentence. The account’s unnamed Chinese detainee is not identified with any named defendant.
Page 2 names this defendant on a six-person self-defense committee in the Sacramento prosecution of twenty-four workers for vagrancy and criminal syndicalism before Judge William J. Carraghar. It reports three weeks in crowded cement-floor confinement, denial of beds, blankets and adequate food, and total bail of $96,000, without assigning individual bail. Weekly shaving restrictions and alleged judicial taunts are attributed to the newspaper. This is an early trial stage, not the later 1935 verdict or a full custody total. Printed here as Albert Hongarely; same organizer and committee context identify Hougardy. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n193-sect-one-aug-13-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
A Sacramento defense statement dated February 27, 1935, printed in the Daily Worker on March 5, included this defendant among fourteen signers. The statement defended the International Labor Defense and its conduct of the trial and bail campaign against factional criticism. It also named Luther Mincy and John Fisher as acquitted about a week before the statement. Its allegations about other defendants’ cooperation with police are partisan claims, not independently established facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n055-NAT-mar-05-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
The September 3, 1936 San Francisco dispatch reports Hougardy already released on parole from San Quentin. It calls his fixed term three and a half years and identifies Pat Chambers, Jack Crane, Martin Wilson, Caroline Decker and Nora Conklin as still confined while the International Labor Defense pursued appeals. This establishes parole before the report, not an exact physical release date, and does not equate a sentence or later appellate reversal with time actually served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n213-NY-sep-04-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=6
The December 29, 1934 New Militant identifies Albert Hougardy as the Sacramento Communist Party organizer and a congressional candidate in its named account of the Sacramento defendants. Its bail and pending-trial descriptions are a contemporary snapshot, separate from later verdicts and prison custody. Source: https://www.themilitant.com/1934/0751/NM0103.pdf#page=1
Page 1 individually names this organizer among the Sacramento prisoners facing a prospective grand-jury criminal-syndicalism proceeding. The issue prints inconsistent collective totals of twenty-eight and thirty-one prisoners, and reports $4,000 cash bail each in one dispatch. It prints Albert Hogarty in the dispatch and Hogardy in the editorial; the Sacramento organizer context identifies the existing Hougardy record. No new arrest date, completed indictment, conviction or actual service is inferred from the pending proceeding. The separate San Francisco city hunger strike and county work strike are not individually attributed to the Sacramento defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n190-aug-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 1's August 17 Sacramento dispatch names Chambers, Decker, Conklin and Warnick Hougardy among seventeen indicted the previous day for criminal syndicalism after the general-strike crackdown. The printed Warnick form is preserved for the Hougardy member of the established cohort. This is the existing prosecution's indictment stage, not another conviction or completed custody term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n198-aug-18-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 3's Sacramento trial report individually names this defendant raising jury-selection issues: Decker asked about support for Scottsboro freedom, while Hougardy challenged exclusion of Black workers and farmers. Attorney Leo Gallagher sought a mistrial and action over alleged prosecutor-juror contacts and threats. Judge Dal M. Lemmon denied the defense motions; jury selection was still unfinished. The allegations remain attributed and the later verdict is not backdated to this procedural report. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n302-Nat-dec-19-DW-LOC.pdf
PDF page 12 identifies Hougardy as Communist section organizer conducting his own defense with Decker and Martin Wilson in the Sacramento trial, with repeated jury panels and alleged vigilante participation. These are pending-trial claims, not the later verdict or a complete prison total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf
In her account dated August 10, 1934 from Sacramento City Jail, Caroline Decker names Albert Hougardy among the jailed defendants and describes prison classes, including Communist organization taught by this defendant. She reports the July 20 raid, vagrancy holds, escalating bail, and a July 30 attempt by five defendants to obtain release which the district attorney blocked; leaving their cells was not an actual release. Formal criminal-syndicalism warrants followed July 31, with $3,000 bail. The account supplies no final discharge or total days served. She identifies Hougardy and Pat Chambers as arrested with her at the Workers’ Center at 11:45 a.m. on July 20.
In his sentencing statement, Hougardy said he had belonged to the Communist Party for four years, disputed the evidence against him, and declared that he would continue organizing after leaving San Quentin. The article reports the statements before imposition of the one-to-fourteen-year sentence and supplies no new physical admission day.
Daily Worker, February 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The issue prints an open letter signed by Pat Chambers, Caroline Decker and Albert Hougardy to the California Conference of Agricultural Workers in Stockton on June 6. They write from behind prison bars after their criminal-syndicalism convictions and propose nine measures for statewide organizing, union democracy, cooperation with independent unions and repeal of the law. This documents joint political writing during the existing imprisonment, without another admission or release.
Daily Worker, August 13, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The complete Sacramento roster on PDF pages 17–18 individually names this defendant among seventeen indicted for criminal syndicalism during the 1934 strike crackdown. Printed variants include Lorent Norman, W. H. Huffine and Harry J. Collentz. The threatened six-to-eighty-four-year range is exposure, not an imposed sentence or actual service. This corroborates the existing Sacramento prosecution; no new arrest, personal prison admission, release day or verdict is inferred from the roster.
The October 24 Sacramento dispatch printed in the Daily Worker of October 26, 1934, page 1, names Martin Wilson, Pat Chambers, Caroline Decker and Al Hougardy among eighteen criminal-syndicalism defendants currently jailed awaiting the announced November 8 trial. Their letter demands investigation of corporate, police and judicial involvement in California anti-labor repression. The threatened or scheduled trial is not treated as a completed proceeding or a new custody episode.
The June 4 editorial individually names the seven Sacramento labor organizers, including Albert Hougardy, as then imprisoned at San Quentin or Tehachapi for agricultural-strike organizing, while advocating repeal of criminal syndicalism and their release. This is contemporary confirmation and defense context for the existing case, not a new conviction or physical custody endpoint.
Nat Davis’s page 7 review of agricultural organizing names Chambers, Decker and Hougardy as imprisoned criminal-syndicalism defendants whose letter greeted the June 6–7 Stockton conference. It summarizes their proposals for a statewide organizing campaign, democratic locals, low dues, united action and a campaign against vigilantism and the syndicalism law. These are attributed political and labor-organizing proposals from existing prisoners, without new sentences or measured custody totals.
Daily Worker, August 9, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The paper follows the $500 bail reduction and rejection of property security without an exact final discharge day. PDF page 15 adds mining, maritime, carpenters’ union and Workers Ex-Servicemen’s League background. Trial postponements are stages of the existing Sacramento case; eighty-four years was potential exposure.
Daily Worker, August 18, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 19, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, January 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Contemporary report, March 1935
The Daily Worker’s March 19 Sacramento dispatch, published March 20, 1935, reports Albert Hougardy testifying in his own defense during the criminal-syndicalism trial. The paper says Judge Lemmon opened the sixteenth week by restricting the defense to denying the accusations, and describes Hougardy criticizing the National Recovery Administration. Those are attributed accounts of a trial stage before the separately recorded April verdict and sentence, not a new conviction, actual prison admission, physical discharge or measured term.
