Biography
Clinton Moss was a Black Alabama sharecropper and member of the Share Croppers' Union. He was jailed in December 1932 following the Reeltown confrontation over the seizure of Clifford James's livestock. International Labor Defense attorney Frank B. Irwin visited him at Dadeville during the defense campaign. Moss and four other defendants were prosecuted for assault with intent to murder. In 1933, Judge William B. Bowling sentenced him to ten to ten and a half years. By July he had been transferred to Speigner Prison, north of Montgomery, along with Ned Cobb and Judson Simpson.
The December 26, 1932 Daily Worker explicitly names him among Dadeville prisoners interviewed by ILD attorney Frank B. Irwin after his Thursday, December 22 arrival with Mrs. E. M. Cooper. Cooper was denied access, and sheriffs attended and took notes during the interviews. The article says ten prisoners but lists nine names; no missing identity or additional custody endpoint is invented. Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/herndon/1932/dec-26-1932-DW.pdf#page=3
The January 19, 1933 Dadeville dispatch reports a preliminary hearing the preceding day before Judge Oliver: five Reeltown defendants were held for the grand jury under $750 bail each. Cobb was accused of shooting Clifford Elder and the others of accessory involvement. The defense named Frank B. Irwin and Irving Schwab. This preliminary judge is not substituted for the later trial judge, and the collective account supplies no individual jail intake or discharge. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n017-NY-jan-20-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The May 2, 1933 Daily Worker reports that the five Reeltown defendants were then confined in the Alabama state penitentiary under long sentences after the Dadeville trial. The defense account describes Cobb shot three times in the back and Simpson wounded at home, his wife struck with a pistol butt, and corroboration by niece Susie Mae Cotton. It identifies Simpson as Cliff James’s brother-in-law and disputes his presence at the cabin. No exact transfer day or complete actual duration is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n105-NY-scct-one-may-02-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The January 18, 1933 Dadeville bulletin places this defendant among five held for the grand jury on assault-to-murder charges and sets bail at $750 each (verified on the native page; OCR misreads $150). It says Black spectators were barred while 300 sympathetic white sharecroppers attended and names defense attorneys Schwab and Irwin. Bail being set is not proof of posting or release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n02-feb-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=5
The December 26 report names these detained Tallapoosa sharecroppers while describing the ILD’s attempts to locate and visit the prisoners. It differentiates Dadeville, Montgomery and Tuskegee locations rather than assigning every individual to all three. It supplies no new arrest or complete actual duration. Daily Worker, December 26, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n308-NY-dec-26-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The original PDF’s second page, headed July 29, 1933, reports transfer of these sharecroppers to Speigner prison. The other pages are headed July 31. Its description of a previous prison shooting is institutional context and does not establish that these three were individually shot. The transfer is not a new arrest. Daily Worker, July 31, 1933 (PDF page 2: July 29), original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n182-NY-jul-31-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Labor Defender, March 1935, PDF page 22: Viola Cobb names him with Ned Cobb and Judson Simpson as receiving five-dollar Christmas prisoner-relief money orders, which she delivered. No new detention or measured service is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n03-mar-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=22
The Tallapoosa report gives Clinton Moss ten to ten and one-half years before Judge William B. Bowling. The printed range was checked visually. Earlier habeas releases preclude assuming continuous custody from the December arrests.
The January 9 Birmingham dispatch individually names him among five sharecroppers still jailed after the December 19 Reeltown confrontation. ILD attorney Frank B. Irwin refused the prosecutor’s request to waive preliminary hearings and insisted on the scheduled Wednesday hearing. Other unnamed arrestees had been freed; that collective release is explicitly not assigned to these five. No new sentence or custody endpoint is established.
