Biography
Dewey Martin organized Southern textile workers for the National Textile Workers Union. In September 1929, he was one of eight union and labor-defense organizers arrested after a meeting in North Charlotte. They were accused of arming themselves and conspiring to spread Communism and overthrow the state government. Martin continued speaking at workers' meetings, including the March 6, 1930 unemployment demonstration in Charlotte. He subsequently received a seven-month chain-gang sentence on a worthless-check charge during the Southern organizing campaign.
The September 14, 1929 Daily Worker names Martin among the eight North Charlotte organizers jailed with Lell, C. D. Saylor, Gibson, Shytle, Ritch, Sheppard and George Saul. It reports conspiracy and added sedition accusations and ILD habeas preparation. The existing September 12 arrest is retained alongside the source’s September 12–13 timing ambiguity; no exact discharge or completed term is added. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n163-NY-sep-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
A separate December literature arrest and completed release
A Gastonia dispatch dated December 12 reports Fred Totherow’s arrest the previous day and states that his brother Elbert Totherow and union organizer Dewey Martin were arrested at the same time while distributing literature. The continuation describes a search and hostile questioning at the police station, after which Elbert and Martin were released. The $100 cash-bail hold in the following sentence belongs to Fred Totherow, not to Martin or Elbert. This December 11 arrest is separate from Martin’s September 1929 North Charlotte prosecution and later worthless-check case. The report does not date Martin’s physical admission or the actual release day, measure his detention, or establish that release happened on the arrest day. No continuous span or additional numerical total is inferred.
Daily Worker, December 13, 1929, original pages 1, 3. Contemporary claims and allegations remain attributed to the newspaper and named writer.
