Biography
Earl Dent was a twenty-five-year-old Black unemployed man in Jacksonville, Florida. A June 12, 1933 Daily Worker report says a patrolman named Ryan, described as not officially connected to the police department, tried to arrest him for possessing pliers, shot his leg, pursued him with help from two white workers, caught him and shot him again in the side. The two workers later said Dent offered no resistance and regretted assisting the pursuit. Dent was in hospital in grave condition. This is an attributed contemporary account of extrajudicial seizure and racial violence, not a formal jail admission, conviction or established death. Exact dates and duration of restraint are unknown. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n140-NY-jun-12-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
