Biography
J. H. Stephenson was a United Textile Workers striker at the Eton Mill in Shelby, North Carolina, charged with "inciting to riot" in the 1935 aftermath of the general textile strike.
Daily Worker, May 31, 1935, page 3: Walt Pickard, president of Burlington Local 1777, names Odel Huey, A. F. Ashe, A. G. Graham and J. H. Stephenson in the spring Eton Mill strike at Shelby. He reports fifteen days in jail, inciting-to-riot charges, initial $1,000 bail and eventual release after the local union supplied $500 bail each. It says Stephenson inquired about the charges the next day and was arrested on the picket line within twenty-four hours. About a month ago is a relative arrest description, not an exact April day. The four-day mill shutdown concerns the strike, not the prisoners' confinement; future prison exposure is not an imposed sentence. Estella Scruggs is named as a fired union member, without a report that she was arrested. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n130-NAT-may-31-1935-DW-Q.pdf
