Biography
Caroline Drew was a labor organizer arrested 'on suspicion' at Forrest City, Arkansas during the June 1936 Benson trial, reportedly for talking with a Black striker. She was jailed briefly, searched, and released — one of several outside sympathizers detained in the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union terror.
A June 19, 1929 Gastonia dispatch identifies her as a Workers International Relief representative and reports her release with members of a strikers’ relief committee. Rumors of new arrests or charges were described as threats against strike feeding work, not accomplished rearrests. This detention predates her New York white-goods and Arkansas episodes. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n089-NY-jun-20-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The white-goods report identifies her May 23, 1930 arrest at 30th Street and Madison Avenue with Fay Roth and Dora Fishberg, accused of police assault. Bail was $500 for Drew and $50 for each companion. The trial was postponed to June 13; that scheduled trial is not an actual disposition. Daily Worker, June 11, 1930, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n140-NY-jun-11-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, June 10, 1929, page 2: The relief worker is individually reported arrested the previous day in the June 9 dispatch while going to consult defense attorney Jimison. Her work included relief picnics, local committees and food collection. This corroborates the already recorded Gastonia detention and later release report, without creating a duplicate case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n080-NY-jun-10-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929, page 1–2: The June 13 bulletin names this prisoner under assault with intent to kill, alongside fifty-two unnamed people. This records the accusation at that stage of the Gastonia case, not a separate prosecution or final verdict. Page 2 reports that she was showing the Passaic strike film at Bessemer City when the shooting occurred; the ILD planned to seek bail. That planned application was not a completed release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n084-NY-jun-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
Grace Hutchins interviewed Caroline Drew, the Trade Union Unity League organizer and former Gastonia defendant, inside the Women’s Workhouse on Welfare Island. Hutchins reported that Drew was serving a thirty-day sentence following her arrest at a New York white-goods workers’ organizing meeting in May 1930. The report confirms actual confinement but does not establish her admission day, physical discharge or completed time served. This earlier New York prosecution is separate from her 1936 Arkansas detention.
Daily Worker, June 10, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
