Biography
Arvid Johnson was among seven anti-fascist demonstrators prosecuted after protesting Nazi propagandist Ernst Hanfstaengl’s visit to Harvard University. The Daily Worker, October 25, 1934, page 1 reports six months in jail and a $20 fine each before Judge George James in East Cambridge, with an order to begin serving immediately and an ILD campaign for their release. The account does not establish their first arrest day, physical jail-admission day, release or actual time served.
The October 25 Cambridge dispatch in the October 26, 1934 Daily Worker, page 5, names the seven anti-Hanfstaengl demonstrators and says Judge George James in Middlesex Superior Court increased their sentences the previous day, October 24, to six months and a $20 fine each. It specifies disturbing the peace and speaking without a permit at the Harvard Square protest the preceding June. The paper prints Sarah Barr, corresponding in this same seven-person roster to Sara Barr in the preceding issue. These are imposed penalties; no completed six-month service or physical discharge is inferred.
