John Gates
Biography
John Gates was One of twelve Communists sentenced under Dennis v. United States.
John Gates, a leader of the communist Workers' Party and the leader of the Young Communist League, along with eleven other party leaders were found guilty for advocating the violent overthrow of the United States. None of the defendants ever directly advocated to overthrow the government, but the prosecutor claimed that by supporting an ideology that advocated for violence, they also did by extension. The defendants claimed that their First Amendment freedom of speech rights were violated and they served no "clear and present danger to the nation".
They were found guilty and each sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court who affirmed the lower court's verdict.
The continuation of the December 16, 1932 Warren water-relief delegation report names the young worker Gates among participants accompanying Dallet. It describes organizing and police threats, without an accomplished arrest. This is early activity evidence, not an additional imprisonment episode. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n300-NY-dec-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Documented case history
An October 1937 Volunteer for Liberty report describes Gates succeeding Bill Lawrence as political commissar at the International Brigades base. It places Gates’s arrival in Spain in early February 1937 and arrival at the Cordoba front on April 1. These are military-service events, not U.S. custody dates. The same-name Bill Lawrence in this article is not automatically identified with a Philadelphia prisoner.
The study identifies the name variants Solomon Regenstreif; Sol Regenstreif.
Tuomas Savonen, Minnesota, Moscow, Manhattan, 2020, PDF pages 113, 163.
