Biography
Archie Brown was a San Francisco longshoreman, Communist organizer and executive-board member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10. Federal authorities arrested him in May 1961 under the Landrum-Griffin Act provision barring Communists from union office and released him on $5,000 bail. He was convicted in 1963 and sentenced to six months in prison, but remained free during appeal. The Supreme Court struck down the law and reversed the conviction in 1965. The reviewed record does not establish that he served any part of the sentence.
The October 31, 1935 Voice of the Federation names the four Ship Scalers defendants as Natalio Villi, Francisco Yminez, Julio Canales and Archie Brown and explicitly says all four were held without bail. The matching cohort links the printed Yminez to the existing Jiminez record. A December 9 trial date was then prospective, while the defense sought an earlier date; this interim article does not supersede later individually documented dispositions or establish a release day. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351031.pdf#page=2
Pages 1, 5 and 6 name the four Ship Scalers Local 38-100 defendants in the murder prosecution after Vicente Torres' death at the September 21 meeting. They describe defense counsel Leo Gallagher challenging a business-dominated jury of nine men and three women, Judge Jacks denying a new working-class panel, and 150 protest telegrams. Maritime unions voted a December 20 half-hour work stoppage, still prospective on publication. The ongoing trial report does not supersede the later December 23 acquittal or establish a separate arrest or exact discharge. Source: https://archive.ilwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/19351219.pdf
Daily Worker, December 28, 1929, page 1: The December 27 San Francisco dispatch names Brown with Carl Walker, Fred Walker and John Little as Young Communist League members awaiting appeal action on a 120-day sentence for factory-gate speeches in Oakland and Emeryville. This is an earlier case, distinct from his later union-office and ship-scalers prosecutions. The imposed term does not establish actual time served or confinement through publication. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-nat/v06-n253-NAT-dec-28-1929-DW-Q.pdf
Photo credit
Separate Ship Scalers prosecution in 1935
The December 9, 1935 Waterfront Worker identifies Archie Brown alongside Natalio Villi, Julio Canales and a defendant named Jiminez as arrested following a fight at the Ship Scalers Union Local 38-100 hall. It announces their murder-prosecution trial for December 11. The contemporary report describes the prosecution as a frame-up; that characterization is attributed to the newspaper. This is a separate earlier proceeding from Brown's Landrum-Griffin case. The report establishes no exact arrest day, prison admission, release, completed prison term or final disposition; those fields remain unknown.
Voice of the Federation, December 19, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 28, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Pages 1, 3 and 6 report acquittal of the four Ship Scalers defendants and the half-hour December 20 waterfront protest. Archie Brown is individually named conducting his own defense with ILD lawyers George Andersen and Leo Gallagher. The article describes conflicting prosecution testimony and medical evidence about Torres’s death. The issue establishes acquittal by December 27 but does not state its precise day or certify an exact physical discharge day.
The October18 San Francisco report identifies Archie Brown among the defendants arrested at the September14 City Hall unemployment demonstration and sentenced the previous day by Judge Fritz: six months. This is a distinct 1931 case; the imposed sentence is not a measured served duration.
Page1’s December24 SanFrancisco report dates the ShipScalers acquittal to yesterday, December23. It says ArchieBrown defended himself, while GeorgeAndersen and LeoGallagher represented the other three; the jury returned its verdict in seven minutes. Its account that Torres fell while avoiding a fight and that employer-aligned witnesses perjured themselves is attributed to the defense newspaper, not independently adjudicated here.
The November 2, 1931 Young Worker explicitly reports Brown serving a six-month sentence.
