Biography
John Smith was the Black vice president and checkweighman of the Cornett-Lewis union local at Louellen, Kentucky. During the first week of November 1934 strike, deputies George Lee, Frank White and Merle Middleton kidnapped and beat him. Still barely able to walk the following day, he accompanied James Westmoreland to seek county intervention; the sheriff instead threatened his life and ordered him out of the county. No exact abduction day, custody duration or criminal charge is supplied. U.S. Senate, Violations of Free Speech and Rights of Labor, Senate Report No. 6, 76th Congress, 1st session (1939), part 2, printed 68, 69, PDF 298, 299.
