Biography
Louise Thompson was the International Workers Order's organizer in the South. The Daily Worker of May 14, 1934 reports her arrest for vagrancy in Birmingham after she helped striking mill workers and organized for the Order. It says she was put under $300 bail and explains that she maintained a wage-earning job and home in New York. The article presents the arrest as retaliation for labor organizing. Bail being set does not establish that she paid it or was physically released; the exact arrest day and disposition remain unknown.
Joseph Brodsky’s May 15, 1934 interview describes the warrantless raid at Jeanette Williams’s Birmingham home that seized Louise Thompson and five white organizers. He obtained habeas-corpus papers; police then used vagrancy charges, and Thompson was moved to Jefferson County jail. He attributes racial and sexual insults and threats of Klan violence to police. The application and transfer are not proof of bail discharge; no new custody endpoint is assigned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n116-may-15-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
Louise Thompson was the International Workers Order's organizer in the South. The Daily Worker of May 14, 1934 reports her arrest for vagrancy in Birmingham after she helped striking mill workers and organized for the Order. It says she was put under $300 bail and explains that she maintained a wage-earning job and home in New York. The article presents the arrest as retaliation for labor organizing. Bail being set does not establish that she paid it or was physically released; the exact arrest day and disposition remain unknown.
