Biography
Clay East was a co-founder of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, which he helped organize in 1934 at Tyronza, Arkansas with H. L. Mitchell. During the June 1936 trial of fellow organizer Dave Benson at Forrest City, East was struck over the head and jailed 'for safe keeping' amid the planter terror against the union — a leading white Socialist of the Arkansas sharecropper movement.
Josephine Johnson’s June 30, 1936 New Masses article, printed page 12 / PDF page 15, identifies East as an STFU defense-committee member. Following Benson’s trial, planters surrounded East and defense attorney M. Moody in the courthouse; East was struck over the head and jailed for safe keeping, while Moody was threatened and told to leave Arkansas. Only East’s actual jail custody is established in that passage. No exact admission day, release or detention total is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n01-jun-30-1936-NM.pdf#page=15
