Biography
George Taylor was a Black Oklahoma City relief protester jailed after the May 21, 1934 demonstration at Federal Emergency Relief Administration headquarters. The demonstrators demanded distribution of federal relief; police dispersed them with tear gas and fire hoses. Taylor, George Hopkins, George Wilson and Robert Seymour remained in jail while twelve other arrested workers were released. Federal prosecutors charged the defendants with attempting to seize government goods, interfering with federal officers and conspiracy. Taylor was convicted and sentenced to a year and a day in prison and a $100 fine. The International Labor Defense organized the defense and appeal.
The Daily Worker reported the filing of the Oklahoma relief-demonstration defendants’ appeal on March 4, 1935, with J. O. Cooke and Stanley Beldon named as counsel. The report described the convictions as arising from the preceding May demonstration. Its stated prison terms are imposed sentences, not newly established actual service; the appeal-funding deadlines were prospective. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n055-NAT-mar-05-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
PDF page 12 individually names the four Oklahoma City defendants in the federal relief-demonstration prosecution stemming from May 21, 1934. It reports charges of attempting to seize federal goods, interfering with officers and conspiracy, with a January trial still prospective. The text inconsistently says four jailed since May plus a fourth rearrested after recognizance, without identifying who had that bail interval; it cannot establish uninterrupted May-to-January custody for every man or supersede later individual sentences. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n01-jan-1935-orig-LD.pdf
An Oklahoma City protest letter individually identifies George Wilson, R. A. Seymour, George Taylor and George Hopkins as still held from the May 21, 1934 relief demonstration. It describes police and firemen dispersing the demonstration and prosecutor W. C. Lewis minimizing the underlying conduct while using federal conspiracy provisions. This corroborates continuing detention before the later convictions; neither the prospective maximum faced by the separate protest-letter defendants nor their raids are assigned as a new case to these four.
Labor Defender, January 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.