Biography
Jessie London Wakefield was an International Labor Defense field representative who organized legal defense and relief for jailed coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1931. Her car was dynamited while she was carrying food and clothing to miners’ families. She was arrested on criminal-syndicalism charges, released on $2,000 bail, and then arrested again. After a hearing on August 10, Judge Whitehead held her for the grand jury with $5,000 bail and an additional $5,000 peace bond. She was confined in the Harlan County jail alongside Civil Liberties Union representative Arnold Johnson. By September 13, both had been released on condition that they leave Harlan County. Wakefield left the Kentucky organizing field on September 12 and subsequently worked as secretary of the ILD Prisoners’ Relief Fund.
Frank Spector’s account in the October1931 Labor Defender describes Jessie Wakefield as recently released from Harlan imprisonment and near collapse from lack of food. This is a contemporary report of the health effects of detention, rather than an additional release date.
A September 2, 1931 Pineville report says the prosecution demanded that Wakefield’s criminal-syndicalism trial be heard first on the coming Wednesday. The report concerns the existing Harlan detention and International Labor Defense campaign. The announced hearing is not proof of a completed trial, conviction or physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n211-NY-sep-02-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Allen’s memoir recounts Jessie Wakefield’s Harlan criminal-syndicalism arrests, the bombing of her relief-delivery car and a later arrest with ACLU representative Arnold Johnson. The narrative corroborates the existing Harlan prosecution and relief work, without establishing another exact admission, release or completed service total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/allen/organizing-south.pdf#page=72
The September 12, 1931 Daily Worker explicitly describes Jessie London Wakefield as still jailed on criminal-syndicalism accusations arising from prisoner defense and strike relief, and recalls her food-and-clothing Ford being dynamited. This confirms confinement in the existing Harlan episode at the report’s date but does not establish an exact physical-release day. The statutory twenty-one-year maximum is not her imposed or actual term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n220-NY-sep-12-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The August 28 report places the ILD Southern representative in Harlan jail on a criminal-syndicalism accusation under $10,000 bond. It distinguishes her from threatened Federated Press correspondent Jessie Lloyd. Bond is not a fine or proof of physical release. Daily Worker, August 28, 1931, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n207-NY-aug-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The August 28, 1931 Daily Worker identifies the ILD Southern representative as Mrs. Jessie London Wakefield, confined in the Harlan jail on a criminal-syndicalism charge under $10,000 bond. This supplies a fuller contemporary name and bail detail within her existing Kentucky prosecution, without establishing physical release or a complete period of custody. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1931/v08-n207-NY-aug-28-1931-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Portelli reports six weeks in jail before conditional release from Harlan.
Hevener dates Wakefield’s joint arrest with Arnold Johnson to August 6, 1931 and describes five weeks in Harlan County jail because neither could post $10,000 bond. On September 12 they agreed to leave Kentucky rather than face transfer to an isolated Jackson County jail. The account concerns this joint episode, not necessarily her earlier arrest. Its rounded five weeks differs from the existing six-week summaries and is preserved without recalculating a complete custody total.
John Watts Hevener, A New Deal for Harlan: The Roosevelt Labor Policies in a Kentucky Coal Field, 1931–1939 (Ohio State University PhD dissertation, 1971), printed pages 115 (PDF pages 124). Source 805 SHA256 03766c260a4cf06629fb296358baf9e49448a191f9d290929ecd947963b0e125.
