Biography
Ben Fletcher was the most prominent African American organizer in the Industrial Workers of the World and a leader of Marine Transport Workers Local 8, the interracial union that controlled the Philadelphia waterfront. One of more than 100 Wobblies convicted in the 1918 Chicago mass trial under the Espionage Act for opposing World War I, he was imprisoned at Leavenworth; his sentence was commuted in 1922 and he received a full pardon from President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. (Recorded as Benjamin Harrison Fletcher)
The March 1920 One Big Union Monthly prisoner roster provides a contemporaneous procedural account. The roster reports that he was out on $10,000 bond pending appeal in the Chicago IWW prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/one-big-union-monthly/v02n03-mar-1920_One%20Big%20Union.pdf#page=10
The March1922 official report lists Ben Fletcher in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy and violating the espionage act. a sentence of August 30, 1918, 10 years, Leavenworth; fined $30,000. ;. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF8]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 8.
