Clarina Michelson
Biography
Clarina Michelson was a Communist and labor organizer born on April 22, 1892, into an affluent Boston family. She attended Radcliffe College and the Rand School in New York, later serving on the board of the American Fund for Public Service. She organized strike relief through Workers International Relief during the Kentucky coal strike of 1932 and was jailed in Pineville on criminal-syndicalism charges following the January 4 arrests. On February 14, after becoming seriously ill, she left the jail on bail in an ambulance for St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville. She later organized in Harlem and among New York department-store workers. Her birth name was Clarina Shumway Hanks. She married journalist Herman Michelson in 1918 and died in New York in 1984.
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 4: The May’s strike report lists Michelson, Aarons, Monokian and Edison as arrested in November 1935, originally accused of conspiracy to interfere with business. It says the grand jury declined that accusation and a coercion prosecution followed. Trial was scheduled for May 12 in Special Sessions, Part 1, before Solomon, Rayfiel and Hoffman. Three years was possible exposure, not an imposed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The January 5, 1932 Daily Worker names the nine organizers arrested when deputies raided National Miners Union headquarters in Pineville at 10 a.m. January 4. They were actually jailed under $5,000 bond each on criminal-syndicalism accusations. The announced hearing was prospective. Printed variants include Kamenovich, Michaelson, Norman Martins, Marguerite Fontaine and Julio Parker; these are matched to the established cohort without duplicate profiles or changes to later individually documented releases. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n004-NY-jan-05-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The January 7, 1932 issue reports Vern Smith telephoning from Pineville county jail on January 6, with the nine still held. Miners guarded the jail against a threatened kidnapping after a January 5 protest march. The hearing was postponed to January 7; neither a kidnapping nor the eventual hearing outcome is established here. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n006-NY-jan-07-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The March 2, 1932 issue reports a March 1 grand-jury indictment of the January 4 cohort, Doris Parks, Frank Mason and Gilbert Green. Its collective claim that all nine were still jailed is unreliable for individual custody endpoints: Clarina Michelson has a separately documented February 14 physical release to a Knoxville hospital. That release is retained, with no inferred March rearrest; the report also explicitly describes Parks as arrested later than January 4. Threatened maximum penalties are not imposed sentences or time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n053-NY-mar-02-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Page 4 names Clarina Michaelson, Irving Aarons, Elsie Monokian and Pearl Edelson as the May’s strike coercion defendants scheduled for May 12. These spelling variants are retained in source context and matched to the existing strike cohort. The ILD says the grand jury rejected Geoghan’s conspiracy approach and he then pursued other counts. This is a pretrial defense report, not an imposed term or proof of physical discharge. A pre-existing separate Elsie Monokian record is flagged in the audit; this publication uses the older, fuller Elsie Monakian identity and performs no consolidation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n111-NY-May-08-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The May’s strike report lists her among four defendants whose conspiracy accusation had failed and whose coercion trial was due June 15 at Brooklyn Special Sessions. The report names David Krasny as union treasurer. This is a further scheduled hearing in the existing case, not proof of a new arrest, verdict or physical release. Daily Worker, June 12, 1936, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n141-NY-jun-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Julia Parker’s firsthand Pineville account spells her surname Michaelson and describes a fever of 104 degrees, a doctor brought from Knoxville, threats outside the jail and miners’ protective guards. These are attributed conditions in the existing Kentucky confinement, not a new admission or completed duration. Labor Defender, June 1932, original PDF page 9. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n06-jun-1932-LD.pdf#page=9
Daily Worker, April 25, 1935, page 1: The report, spelling her surname Michaelson, identifies the Office Workers' Union organizer among twenty-three pickets arrested the previous day at the New York Curb Exchange in support of twenty-nine page boys dismissed for union activity. It reports police clubs and mounted police before a crowd of over 5,000, appearance before Magistrate Dryer, release into ILD attorney Stone's custody and trial set for May 13. The scheduled hearing is not a verdict; the issue does not supply a precise jail admission or measured service. This corroborates the existing April 24 Curb Exchange episode without duplicating it. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n099-NAT-apr-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
The March chronology lists these people as actually arrested in the National Miners Union office raid and held under $5,000 bond on criminal-syndicalism charges. Its January 4 heading conflicts with the January 7 date in other reports; the discrepancy is retained without assigning a new exact arrest field. Warrants for other organizers are not treated as executed arrests; no precise physical discharge or complete duration is established. Daily Worker, March 12, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n061-NY-mar-12-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The report of the Workers International Relief protest campaign identified John Harvey as recently jailed for National Miners Union activity in Kentucky and Tennessee and Clarina Michelson (printed Michaelson) as previously held in Pineville jail. It announced their April 17 New York speaking appearance. Daily Worker, April 16, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n091-NY-apr-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Douglas McDonald's eyewitness account in the February 20, 1932 Daily Worker describes the six women defendants sharing two tiny rooms with other prisoners in Pineville, sleeping four to a bed, drying stockings over a small stove and supplementing poor jail food with vegetables supplied by supporters. They sent letters, telegrams and protests to newspapers, officials and defense organizations. The account describes the January 12 hearing, delays beyond the prescribed seventy-two hours, exclusion and searching of miners seeking to observe, and a missing original warrant replaced during the proceedings. These conditions concern the existing January headquarters-raid prosecution; no additional admission, release date or measured custody total is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n044-NY-feb-20-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
May’s Department Store strike arrest and parole
Miriam Rivers’s December 11 account of the Brooklyn May’s strike names Clarina Michaelson and Irving Aarons among those arrested on conspiracy-to-interfere-with-business charges. The article recounts a subsequent court appearance before Magistrate Jacob Elperin in which the defendants, explicitly including Michaelson, were let out after union lawyer Joshua Hellinger sought parole. It does not state the date of that release or the complete duration of custody. This episode is separate from her January–February 1932 Pineville imprisonment; no 1932 endpoint is altered and no exact 1935 release day is inferred.
Separate January 1936 May’s strike arrest and bail order
The January 27, 1936 Daily Worker, original PDF page 4, names Clarina Michaelson, a documented spelling variant, among seven people arrested for picketing May’s Department Stores and brought to court on Sunday, January 26. It reports that she and those arrested across the street were taken to the Sixth Precinct Court, while another group went to the Ninth Precinct Court. All were held on $25 bail each with separate trial dates. This is a distinct January 1936 strike episode, not her 1932 Pineville imprisonment or the 1935 May’s incident already described here. The article does not give the exact arrest/booking day, whether or when bail was paid, or an actual release date; no precise custody period or completed duration is inserted.
Daily Worker, January 27, 1936, original PDF pages 1–4 as specified above. Contemporary allegations and witness accounts are attributed; no administrative event is treated as physical release.
Contemporary hospital-transfer date discrepancy
The February 20, 1932 Southern Worker, original PDF page 1, individually reports that Clarina Michelson had been jailed since January 4 and was taken by ambulance from the Pineville jail to Knoxville after a $10,000 surety bond was posted. It calls the transfer Saturday evening. The more precisely dated Daily Worker hospital bulletin of February 15 instead says she left at 8:30 Sunday night, February 14, which is the date already recorded here. These contemporary accounts disagree on the weekday. The Saturday wording is preserved as a source discrepancy, not used to overwrite the independently reported February 14 physical release or the existing 41-day interval. Hospital treatment after bail is not counted as continued jail confinement.
Southern Worker, February 20, 1932, original PDF page 1; Daily Worker, February 15, 1932, hospital bulletin on original PDF page 1. January 4 is individually stated, not assigned from an unnamed group.
An April 1932 Labor Defender bulletin individually reports that Clarina Michaelson and Dorothy Ross Weber had suffered pneumonia while jailed in the Kentucky coal-strike prosecution. The publication attributes the illnesses to prison conditions; this is a contemporary advocacy report rather than an independent medical finding. It supplies additional reported conditions-of-confinement context without changing either woman’s existing admission or release date.
Daily Worker, May 8, 1936; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Separate April 1935 Curb Exchange arrest
The April 25, 1935 Daily Worker names Clarina Michaelson, Office Workers Union organizer, among 23 pickets arrested at the New York Curb Exchange. Its word yesterday supports April 24 as the derived arrest date. It reports that the workers were brought before Magistrate Dryer and released into the custody of International Labor Defense attorney Stone, without stating the release day or complete custody duration. May 13 was a future trial date. This episode is distinct from her 1932 Pineville confinement and the November 1935 and January 1936 May’s strike episodes; no additional custody days are counted.
Daily Worker, April 25, 1935, page 1, Police Jail 23 In Office Union.
Daily Worker, April 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 1’s individually identified photograph places this person among the Kentucky–Tennessee strike leaders held in Pineville jail; the caption names organizations and criminal-syndicalism prosecution. Pages 1 and 3 report threats of transfer to Harlan gunmen, postponed habeas proceedings before Judge Jones, and miners demanding protection of the prisoners. These are attributed threats, not an accomplished transfer, lynching or final conviction. Printed Marguerite Fontaine, Dorothy Ross and Clarina Michaelson variants are preserved where applicable. Existing separately documented release dates are unchanged.
The Kentucky-Tennessee Strike narrative individually places this defendant in Pineville jail after the January 4 headquarters arrests. It describes crowded quarters, women sleeping four to a bed, delayed hearings, missing/replaced warrants and prosecutors using union and relief literature as criminal-syndicalism evidence. The January 12 hearing narrative and January 13 grand-jury referral are retained without turning the threatened twenty-one-year maximum into an imposed or served term. Later independently established releases are not overwritten.
Michelson’s own account on PDF page 6 says a miner witness was arrested during testimony, defendant examinations were curtailed and miners were excluded after searches while company representatives were admitted. Her account challenges the impartiality of Judge Van Beber and prosecutor Smith.
