Biography
Florence Blalock, also spelled Blaylock in the court record, was a Burlington, North Carolina textile worker prosecuted after the September 1934 general textile strike. He was convicted in the mill-dynamiting case on December 4, 1934, and received a four-to-six-year conspiracy sentence followed by a one-year term, with additional concurrent sentences. The North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed his conviction on November 20, 1935. Unable to obtain an appeal bond, he remained in jail in December 1935.
The Daily Worker of February 2, 1935, page 4, reports the International Labor Defense's entry into the Burlington mill-dynamiting case and its plans for a North Carolina Supreme Court appeal by March. Anna Damon announced the defense after an investigation by ILD attorneys. The stated grounds were conviction against the weight of the evidence, allegedly fabricated confessions and judicial prejudice. The article names all seven defendants, including Florence Blalock, and reports sentencing on December 4, 1934. These are the defense organization's contemporary allegations and plans; the report does not itself establish a successful appeal or any new custody endpoint.
The Daily Worker of November 27, 1935, page 2, reports the League for Southern Labor requesting unconditional gubernatorial pardons after the adverse Burlington appeal decision and offering the United Textile Workers' Francis Gorman cooperation. It prints the name as F. Blaylock and summarizes his sentence as five to six years, whereas the existing court record specifies consecutive and concurrent components. The newspaper summary is retained as a source variant without overwriting those more detailed terms. Plans to carry the case to the United States Supreme Court are not proof of a filed or successful appeal.
W. T. Couch, in The Carolina Magazine, December 1935, printed pages 21-25 (PDF pages 101-105), describes his investigation of the Burlington dynamite prosecution. He reports a trial from November 28 to December 4, 1934, attacks the inconclusive track evidence and the selection of 15-18 additional talesmen by deputy John Leath at the prosecution's request, and identifies four Uniontown, Pennsylvania investigators: S. E. Howard, D. P. Stewart, K. R. Delph and J. R. (Randy) Jones. He says they kept prosecution witnesses Charlie McCullom, H. F. Pruitt and Jerry Furlough together in one Alamance Hotel room from the Monday before trial through its conclusion. Couch alleges compromised testimony and possible prejudice; he expressly says he did not establish who committed the dynamiting. His March 1935 request to Frances Perkins was referred to Textile Labor Relations Board chairman Walter P. Stacy, from whom he had received no answer. A note dated December 19 reports four defendants on bond, Blaylock still jailed for inability to obtain bond, Overman serving a separate post-trial offense and Kimrey at liberty on a suspended sentence. The defense sought new material evidence for a new trial and contemplated a federal constitutional appeal; these were efforts, not established outcomes. Couch prints the name Blaylock; his account corroborates continuing jail detention on December 19 but gives no admission date. Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Carolina_magazine_%28serial%29_%28IA_carolinamagazine65univ%29.pdf
A March 22 Burlington dispatch described the appeal of six textile-strike defendants arrested in September 1934 and convicted that December. The defense challenged the legality of the grand jury, alleged jury selection by hand, and the trial judge’s handling of defense testimony and speeches. The report is appellate context, not proof of additional measured time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n071-NAT-mar-23-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
Dan Shays’s April 9, 1935 New Masses account names Florence Blalock in the existing Burlington prosecution and says the disputed confession attributed to co-defendant Howard Overton implicated him. It relays Overton’s wife’s allegation that detectives obtained a signature under intoxication on what he believed was blank paper. These attributed defense claims do not establish another arrest or alter Blalock’s detailed court-record sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1935/v15n02-apr-09-1935-NM.pdf#page=17.
The editorial names him among the five Burlington textile defendants whose convictions were upheld and who were ordered to surrender December 2, 1935. This issue calls the men out on bail, whereas a later account specifically says Blalock could not obtain bond. The collective wording is preserved as a discrepancy and the surrender order is not recorded as an accomplished readmission. The matching Burlington prosecution identifies the existing defendants despite shortened names and spelling variants. Labor Defender, December 1935, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n12-dec-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=3
Daily Worker, May 31, 1935, page 3: The May 30 Raleigh report names the six Burlington textile-strike defendants appealing convictions over the E. M. Holt Plaid Mill dynamiting during the September 1934 strike. It reports this defendant's nominal term as five to six years and an appeal hearing scheduled for August 27 before the North Carolina Supreme Court. Printed Florence Blaylock and J. F. Haraway are roster variants of the established Burlington identities. John L. Anderson, identified as Piedmont Textile Council president when arrested, was then addressing union locals in Pennsylvania, New York and New England. The announced appeal is prospective and the reported terms are not complete actual service. These date-specific figures do not silently overwrite different terms in later court-based records. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n130-NAT-may-31-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1935, PDF page 20: The Burlington report individually names the seven textile defendants and alleges beatings and drugging in jail before a jury excluding union members. It identifies Anderson as Piedmont Textile Council president with an imposed eight-to-ten-year hard-labor term. The accusations of planted dynamite and abuse are the defense magazine’s claims; the collective 27-year total is not allocated as individual time served. No new physical release date is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n02-feb-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=20
Labor Defender, March 1935, PDF page 9: Ericson identifies him as a 26-year-old non-union worker, unknown to Anderson before the prosecution. The article reports an imposed four-to-six-year term and, on PDF 26, flooded Orange County cells shared with Hoggard and Overman. No birthday, fresh prosecution or complete service total is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n03-mar-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=9
Walter S. Pickard’s April 30, 1935 account says the Workers Defense Committee obtained bond for the Burlington textile defendants and that the ILD was assisting their appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court. This is the correspondent’s collective description at that date, not an individual release day; it is retained alongside the later court-based distinctions about who could obtain bond. The report identifies the alleged mill incidents as the September 14, 1934 E. M. Holt Plaid Mill explosion and dynamite found the next day at the Holt and Stevens mills. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1935/v15n05-apr-30-1935-NM.pdf#page=15
The November 23, 1935 Daily Worker spelled his name Florence Blaylock, explicitly identified him as a man, and reported that he was the only Burlington textile-case defendant not out on bail. It supplies no first-admission date.
Daily Worker, February 2, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, November 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Sasha Small’s Christmas appeal prints Florence Blaylock, a male Burlington textile striker jailed following the 1934 strike. It summarizes his chain-gang sentence as six years; the more detailed existing court sentence is preserved. It reports that his father, suffering from heart disease, died by suicide shortly before Thanksgiving and that his mother depended on ILD relief. No exact death date, new arrest or completed service total is established.
Daily Worker, May 31, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Anna Mae Johnson’s Burlington account identifies six textile workers convicted the preceding December of conspiracy to dynamite the E. M. Holt Plaid Mill. It describes exclusion of union sympathizers from the jury, company-paid Pennsylvania detectives and witnesses hoping to share a $1,000 reward; more than one hundred defense witnesses reportedly risked or lost jobs. The North Carolina Supreme Court appeal was pending. Its sentence table/captions are retained with the source; this report does not establish continuous confinement or override later appeal outcomes.
