Biography
Charles Shadrick was a Harlan County, Kentucky coal miner prosecuted after the May 5, 1931 Battle of Evarts. He was among the miners jailed and indicted for murder during the coal strike. Elbert Shadrick and Cecil Shadrick were separately named defendants. The National Miners Union and the International Labor Defense organized support for the imprisoned miners and their families.
The September 12, 1931 Daily Worker includes this name in its Harlan murder-indictment list and describes the International Labor Defense’s preparations, including Franklin Reynolds and Leo Gallagher and challenges to alleged planted testimony. The list establishes the reported prosecution, but supplies no additional individual admission, discharge, conviction or completed custody total. Its claim to be a complete list does not justify inventing missing defendants. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n220-NY-sep-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The New Leader, April 2, 1932, page 10, individually names Charles Shadrick among nine Evarts coal-strike defendants confined in Clark County jail at Winchester, Kentucky, facing proceedings over mine guard Jim Daniels' death in the May 5 battle. It says the miners had been confined since the battle, at Harlan and then Winchester after a change of venue granted by Judge D. C. Jones. It announces trial for the coming Monday before Circuit Judge D. S. Shackelford and appeals for General Defense Committee funds to bring defense witnesses from Harlan. This is contemporary pretrial custody and defense evidence, not a completed trial, death sentence or release. The battle date is not automatically each defendant's individual arrest day. Later outcomes remain preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1932/v13n14-apr-02-1932-NL.pdf
The January 1932 Labor Defender identifies Charles Shadrick as Elbert Shadrick’s father and reports both in Winchester confinement awaiting trial over the May 5 Evarts battle. A family-support appeal describes the hardship of their household. No exact admission, release or trial day follows from this undated report.
The January 1932 Labor Defender winter-aid roster individually lists Charles Shadrick at Clark County Jail at Winchester, Kentucky. This is a contemporary custody-location observation, not an admission or release date; the roster gives no prisoner number or individual custody duration.
Labor Defender, January 1932, PDF page 10, winter-aid roster.
The New Leader, April 2, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
In her December 30, 1931 letter, Mrs. Charles Shadrick says her husband and oldest son are in Winchester Jail, while her other son Cecil is in Harlan Jail under a murder indictment. This family letter corroborates Charles’s existing confinement as of the letter date. It is not a first admission date, sentence or total time served.
