Biography
Donald James Henderson was a labor organizer and former economics instructor at Rutgers and Columbia. Arrested during a City College protest on October 26, 1932, he was released on bail the following day and later received a suspended thirty-day sentence and six months’ probation. Columbia did not renew his appointment in 1933 amid a dispute over his political activities. He went on to organize agricultural workers, including the 1934 Seabrook Farms strike in New Jersey. In 1937 he helped establish the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America and became its president. The union later became the Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers Union. Henderson died in Miami on December 12, 1964.
The Daily Worker of July5,1934 reports that Henderson, national organizer of the Agricultural and Cannery Workers Industrial Union, was jailed at Vineland on July4 during the Seabrook Farms strike. The charges were conspiracy and disorderly conduct, with bail set at $3,500. The report does not give his actual release date or final disposition.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1934: Pages 1–2 report that he and Elinor Henderson were seized and rushed to jail amid the Seabrook Farms strike confrontation. The report describes a strike to maintain the thirty-cent hourly contract and rejects efforts to isolate its organizers. This supports the already recorded July strike detention, distinct from his July 4 arrest; no release, served duration or additional sentence is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n164-jul-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The November 3, 1932 Daily Worker reports the continuing disorderly-conduct trial arising from the October 26 City College Liberal Club police raid, naming Henderson with Nat Sauberman and Karl Amat. Testimony concerned permission for the Room 126 meeting protesting Oakley Johnson’s political dismissal. The trial’s continuation to November 3 does not imply continuous jail: Henderson’s separately documented October 27 bail release and later suspended sentence remain intact. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n263-NY-nov-03-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 6 Bridgeton dispatch identifies Henderson in Cumberland County Jail under $3,500 bail on conspiracy-to-riot charges and dates his seizure to two days earlier, July 4. It corroborates the first Seabrook strike arrest already recorded, distinct from the later July 9 confrontation. Daily Worker, July 7, 1934, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n162-jul-07-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Page 2's July 5 Vineland dispatch says the Agricultural and Cannery Workers Industrial Union national organizer was seized the previous day and remained in confinement during the Seabrook Farms strike. This corroborates the already recorded July 4 arrest, distinct from the later July 9 confrontation. No new custody interval, release or completed sentence is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n161-jul-06-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The October 27 report describes his arrest with three others during the City College protest against his dismissal and police clubbing in Room 126. The independently recorded bail interruption and suspended sentence remain distinct from the initial custody; the issue does not establish a fresh arrest. Daily Worker, October 27, 1932, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n257-NY-oct-27-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Joseph Starobin identifies Henderson as a Columbia economics instructor since1928 and National Student League’s first secretary, describing his City College protest arrest over Oakley Johnson’s expulsion. He and his wife opposed anti-Black discrimination in Harlem. His dismissal followed alumni pressure; a Soviet research-assistant offer was rejected as an attempt to remove him from Columbia. No new arrest is established. Page16. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n07-jul-1933-lab-def.pdf
Daily Worker, July 10, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 6, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The Militant of December 28, 1964, page 2, reported that Donald Henderson died of a kidney ailment in Miami on December 12. The obituary identified his teaching at Rutgers and Columbia, his subsequent organization of New Jersey truck-farm workers, and his leadership of the Food, Tobacco and Agricultural Workers union. It said the illness had forced him into inactivity by 1958. This contemporary obituary corroborates the death date already recorded here; its stated age of sixty-two is not used to calculate a birthdate.
The Militant, December 28, 1964, page 2, Early Organizer of Tobacco Union Dies in Florida.
