Biography
Ethel Stevens was a district Young Communist League organizer involved in the North Tonawanda, New York struggle for unemployed relief. The Daily Worker of December 30, 1931, pages 1 and 3, names Ethel Stevens among workers arrested after the December 28 protest at the Common Council chamber. The workers demanded cash relief and aid for children and opposed a new ordinance restricting leaflets, meetings and parades. The report says the defendants were initially held on open/disorderly-conduct accusations and that the charges were changed to felony and inciting to riot, with bail then denied. No conviction, sentence, eventual release or exact period in custody is established.
A November14,1929 Gary dispatch identifies her as the Young Communist League organizer arrested with Sam Chappa during leafleting outside Hammond’s Queen Anne Candy factory. Both were held incommunicado on riot charges, with heavy bail demanded. The report supplies no exact arrest day, physical release or complete duration. This Indiana detention precedes the separately recorded North Tonawanda case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n216-NY-nov-15-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
