Biography
Dirk DeJonge was an Oregon Communist organizer arrested on July 27, 1934, after speaking at a peaceful Portland meeting protesting police shootings of striking longshoremen and conditions in the county jail. He was indicted under Oregon's criminal-syndicalism law and sentenced to seven years. DeJonge was free on bail while appealing the conviction, but surrendered to the sheriff again after returning from the National Unemployment Insurance Congress in January 1935. On January 4, 1937, the United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed his conviction in De Jonge v. Oregon, holding that the state could not criminalize peaceful assembly for lawful discussion.
The Daily Worker’s Oregon roundup reported his seven-year criminal-syndicalism sentence and a further indictment still awaiting trial. The additional proceeding remained prospective in this account. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n049-Nat-feb-26-1935-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The Spark and the Flame describes De Jonge’s Portland organizing before his well-known criminal-syndicalism prosecution: an October 1931 veterans’ parade held despite denial of a permit, a July 1932 response to the suppression of the Bonus Army, and an August 1, 1932 anti-war march to the Japanese Consulate. The study reports an arrest and fine for the 1931 parade. Its account of the later prosecution contains conflicting dates, including an appeal described as occurring in the same year as conviction although the supporting newspaper citation is from 1935. Those inconsistencies do not replace the separately established 1934 arrest date or prove uninterrupted imprisonment. Source: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5665d770df40f3d958f69fd2/t/6362c37535b25e49dee88bf8/1667416949422/03.Thompson%2BElk%2BProtest%2BDraft-final.docx.pdf#page=6
In his first-person account DeJonge says he was released October 3, 1936 on $2,000 bail after eight months in Oregon State Penitentiary. This establishes release and an eight-month prison segment in the existing July 27, 1934 prosecution, rather than eight months covering all pretrial detention and bail interruptions. The later Supreme Court reversal is a separate legal event. Labor Defender, December 1936, original PDF page 20. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn11-dec-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=20
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935, page 3: The Portland report states that DeJonge, sentenced to seven years in the criminal-syndicalism prosecution arising from the July 27 protest meeting, was out on bail pending appeal. This independently confirms bail liberty by publication, without an exact discharge day or seven years of actual service. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n004-Nat-jan-04-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 3 reports growing protests against De Jonge's seven-year criminal-syndicalism sentence and quotes the Portland Oregonian criticizing the contradiction between legal Communist electoral participation and punishing his advocacy. This is contemporaneous evidence of the campaign against the imposed sentence; it establishes neither seven years actually served nor a new prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n292-Nat-dec-07-DW-LOC.pdf
PDF page 12, printing DeJong, corroborates the seven-year Portland criminal-syndicalism term and ILD appeal, and summarizes his courtroom defense of Communist speech. Nominal term is not a completed duration and the later reversal remains preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 21: In his own account he distinguishes an arrest at the Workers Book Store raid from the later arrest at the protest meeting, after speakers were lined up, searched and taken to the police station. He describes a ten-to-two jury conviction, seven-year imposed sentence, and state appeal upheld over two dissents. He still faced penitentiary service; the seven years is not a completed term. The source does not provide the first raid arrest day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=21
Contemporary December 1935 report and limits
A Portland report datelined December 2 in the December 3, 1935 Daily Worker (p. 3) says DeJonge had been ordered to surrender to Oregon State Penitentiary authorities on December 16, following the state appellate affirmation of his seven-year criminal-syndicalism conviction. The report says counsel were preparing a rehearing petition and pursuing further review. December 16 was a prospective surrender order, not confirmation that he actually entered custody that day. It is not substituted for his earlier January 1935 surrender episode or used to create an assumed continuous custody span.
Source: Daily Worker, national edition, volume 12 number 291, December 3, 1935. Allegations and editorial characterizations are attributed to the paper.
November 26, 1934 sentencing confirmed
The November 29, 1934 Western Worker front-page bulletin, dated Portland November 26, explicitly reports that Dirk DeJonge was sentenced that day to seven years in the state penitentiary. This confirms the sentencing date only. The earlier November 21 report scheduled sentencing for Monday; it is the subsequent completed-event bulletin that supports the date. No prison-admission or release day is inferred, and the existing bail and later surrender chronology remains unchanged.
Western Worker, November1934 issues, original PDF pages 17,19,21
The November 26 Portland bulletin reports a seven-year sentence and immediate ILD appeal, after the guilty verdict covered on PDF page 17. PDF pages 18 and 21 discuss defense evidence and print the November 19 courtroom statement. Seven years is imposed punishment, not actual service, and does not erase later documented bail interruptions.
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 7, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, January 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
A Portland dispatch dated May 3 in the May 4, 1936 Daily Worker names Dirk De Jonge and Edward Denny as criminal-syndicalism prisoners in the Salem penitentiary. It reports that working-class and liberal periodicals were withheld even though prison regulations had been followed, while the Oregon Journal and other newspapers were available. The Portland International Labor Defense appealed for protests to Warden W. J. Lewis. This is an observation of confinement and reported censorship, not a new admission date, proof of uninterrupted custody, or a change to the recorded bail and release chronology.
