Biography
Floyd Booth was a Black unemployed-workers' organizer in Loup City, Nebraska. He was arrested after the June 14, 1934 courthouse confrontation involving striking poultry workers and their supporters. Booth and Carl Wicklund remained in the Loup City jail during the summer, and supporters raised bail amid threats of lynching. His wife Loretta was also prosecuted. A county court sentenced Booth to sixty days and a $50 fine; on appeal, the district court imposed thirty days and a $100 fine for inciting a riot. His conviction was upheld in February 1935, and he served time in the Loup City jail.
Page 3 discusses the Nebraska Supreme Court appeal heard June 5 concerning the June 14, 1934 Loup City confrontation. It names Bloor, Harry MacDonald, Portius Sell, John Squires, Carl Wicklund and Floyd Booth, and separately confirms Booth’s wife was arrested. The account says the lower-court prosecution shifted from riot to unlawful assembly when evidence showed deputies initiated violence; no new Supreme Court result is reported. It identifies Sell, the wounded son on crutches, separately from his hospitalized father Bert Sell. The newspaper criticizes the Booths’ later political loyalty, but this editorial judgment does not undo the fact of their arrests or create another prosecution. No exact jail term served is inferred from the appeal campaign. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n153-NAT-jun-27-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1's June 28 Loup City trial dispatch individually names Floyd and Lauretta Booth as the two Black defendants who returned to court that afternoon after burying Floyd's father. The paper attributes his father's death to shock and threats to lynch the Booths. It says Mother Bloor had refused bail release until the Booths were released. No exact Booth custody endpoint or final judgment is supplied; their court attendance does not prove a new arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n155-jun-29-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 2's September 20 Loup City dispatch reports the seven defendants' district-court appeal hearing had begun the previous day, following their June 29 convictions arising from a poultry-strike solidarity meeting. The newspaper lists unlawful assembly, inciting to riot, resisting an officer, disturbing the peace, and assault and battery as the prosecution's charges collectively, without assigning every count to each person. Defense attorneys challenged the jury selection; the appeal result was still pending. It calls Booth's wife Loretta, a contemporary spelling retained here without changing the profile's identity or treating her as a separate person. This article dates the initial meeting June 13, differing from other accounts' June 14; no existing exact date is overwritten. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n227-sep-21-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Rowley reports a June 16 warrant, June 26 court appearance, initial 60-day/$50 punishment and September 1934 revised 30-day/$100 punishment; these are successive judgments in the same prosecution, not additional actual terms. He places male defendants serving at Loup City after appeal. His home suffered a July 1934 shooting; he became a United Front Secretary of State write-in candidate. The article attributes a later political disavowal to a hostile newspaper. Pages 28-36. Source: https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/doc_publications_NH1966LoupCity.pdf
The June 26, 1934 Loup City report identifies Floyd and Loretta Booth as released on recognizance the previous night and immediately rearrested by the sheriff. They were transported in custody to the Grand Island area for trial on June 26. Floyd’s first custody period therefore ended June 25; the new rearrest period has no established release endpoint. The periods are not counted as one uninterrupted term.
In her signed October 17, 1934 Daily Worker article, Ella Reeve Bloor recounts the Loup City creamery-strike solidarity meeting in June, the beating of farmer Bert Sell, jailing of herself, Black unemployed organizer Floyd Booth and his wife, and rifle attacks on Booth's home. She reports a district-court appeal conviction for inciting to riot, thirty days and a $100 fine each for herself and Booth, the release of Booth's wife, and reduction of appeal bail to $300 after notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court. These are imposed penalties and appeal arrangements, not verified completed service or an exact release for Bloor or Booth. The account is explicitly Bloor's and political/violence allegations remain attributed.
Daily Worker, June 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 29, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 21, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.