Biography
John Sekat was a Communist organizer in Racine, Wisconsin. The January 15 Racine dispatch printed on page 1 of the January 16, 1935 Daily Worker reports that he had recently been jailed on what the newspaper calls a trumped-up charge. The account says the men who kidnapped Sam Herman demanded Sekat’s whereabouts and threatened him with the same treatment. These allegations remain attributed to the contemporary report; no statutory count, arrest day, sentence or release is supplied. Enlarged original confirms the name Sekat. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n014-not-15-Nat-jan-16-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935, page 1: The January 3 Racine dispatch reports that Sekat was found guilty the preceding week on two charges of participating in strike activities at the Horlick Milk Company during summer 1934. International Labor Defense was appealing. The stated four-year maximum is exposure under the conviction, not an imposed sentence or actual service. This adds the conviction context to the existing Racine case, without inferring an exact verdict or arrest day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n004-Nat-jan-04-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Contemporary original newspaper source; individual page evidence retained in review audit 589. Exact individual custody dates and duration are not inferred from relative dates or collective claims.
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The October 17 Racine dispatch in the October 18, 1935 Daily Worker reports that John Sekat had served nine months in Waupun State prison for strike activity and had recently been released on an unconditional executive pardon granted by Governor Phil LaFollette. It describes the imposed term as a “sentence of one to two years for strike activity.” The nine months report time actually served; the article supplies no exact arrest, admission or release day. Its October 25 reception announcement describes a planned public event.
