Biography
Nora Conklin organized unemployed workers in Sacramento and helped them obtain relief through the Unemployed Council. She was among eight defendants convicted in the Sacramento criminal-syndicalism prosecution on April 1, 1935. Judge Dal M. Lemmon imposed an indeterminate sentence of one to fourteen years on April 11. She was imprisoned at the women’s state prison at Tehachapi, and the prison board later fixed her term at five years. At sentencing, she challenged the jury’s impartiality and said she had been convicted for successfully organizing the unemployed. The California Court of Appeal reversed the convictions on September 28, 1937.
A Sacramento dispatch dated February 1 in the Daily Worker of February 2, 1935, page 1, individually names Nora Conklin among five defendants bailed out that day by the International Labor Defense because they were ill from their treatment in custody. The other four named defendants were Lorine Norman, Pat Chambers, Martin Wilson, Harry Collentz. This establishes an interim bail release on February 1, 1935, within the Sacramento prosecution; it is not the final disposition or proof of uninterrupted custody. The source prints Lorine Norman as Lorrine on page 1 and Loraine in the page 4 collective appeal.
Daily Worker, August 23, 1934, page 1: The Sacramento dispatch individually lists this defendant among seventeen facing six criminal-syndicalism counts. It describes the Sacramento prisoners collectively as crowded fourteen to a cell, with no beds or blankets for two weeks and a hole in the floor for a toilet. The stated six-to-eighty-four-year range was potential exposure if convicted, not an imposed sentence. The account’s unnamed Chinese detainee is not identified with any named defendant.
Daily Worker, January 21, 1935: Page 2 individually addresses the Communist Party’s greeting to Nora Conklin at Sacramento County Jail while eighteen defendants faced the criminal-syndicalism trial. This confirms her reported pretrial place of custody, without a new admission date or a completed outcome from the ongoing trial. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n018-Nat-jan-21-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, May 12, 1936, page 5: The paper prints Lorene Norman with Caroline Decker and Nora Conklin as applicants for parole at Tehachapi, with a hearing planned for May 15 after service of the minimum. This is a reported parole application, not proof of a granted parole or executed release. Norman’s earlier bail history is not replaced by this later confinement report. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n114-NY-May-12-1936-DW-Q.pdf
A Sacramento defense statement dated February 27, 1935, printed in the Daily Worker on March 5, included this defendant among fourteen signers. The statement defended the International Labor Defense and its conduct of the trial and bail campaign against factional criticism. It also named Luther Mincy and John Fisher as acquitted about a week before the statement. Its allegations about other defendants’ cooperation with police are partisan claims, not independently established facts. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n055-NAT-mar-05-1935-DW-Q.pdf#page=3
The February 1937 Labor Defender, printed page 19, attributes to Northern California ILD secretary Elaine Black a warning that Conklin was developing a goiter while imprisoned at Tehachapi. The defense report blamed the alkaline well water and lack of iodine, described interruptions in the water supply and a diet lacking fresh vegetables and fish, and requested immediate parole to her husband. A Southern California doctor was being sent to examine her; these are attributed contemporary health allegations and a parole demand, not an independently confirmed diagnosis or a granted parole. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1937/v13-%5B11%5Dn01-feb-1937-orig-LD.pdf#page=22
The May 20, 1936 Daily Worker reports in a San Francisco dispatch dated May 19 that the California Board of Prison Terms and Paroles fixed Nora Conklin's term at five years, following the original indeterminate one-to-fourteen-year sentence. This administrative fixing of the term is distinct from the original sentencing date and from completed time served or a granted release. The May 21 editorial corroborates the terms but its relative 'yesterday' wording differs from the earlier dated dispatch, so no original sentencing field is replaced. Sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n121-NY-May-20-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1 and https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n122-NY-May-21-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=8
The Tehachapi report identifies her among prisoners denied delivery of the Guild Reporter on the ground that it was a Communist publication. It prints prison numbers 57616 for Conklin, 57817 for Decker and 56266 for Todd. The newspaper’s characterization of the underlying cases does not replace the separately established Sacramento and ballot-petition prosecutions. Daily Worker, January 14, 1936, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n012-NY-jan-14-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=1
Page 1's August 17 Sacramento dispatch names Chambers, Decker, Conklin and Warnick Hougardy among seventeen indicted the previous day for criminal syndicalism after the general-strike crackdown. The printed Warnick form is preserved for the Hougardy member of the established cohort. This is the existing prosecution's indictment stage, not another conviction or completed custody term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n198-aug-18-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1936, PDF page 9: Rose Chernin identifies her as 35 among the three political prisoners visited at Tehachapi, with Caroline Decker and Louise Todd. This is an intermediate prison-location and attributed age report, not a complete custody term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1936/v12-%5B10%5Dn02-feb-1936-orig-LD.pdf#page=9
Contemporary custody source
The January 14, 1936 Daily Worker, Page1 identifies Nora Conklin as Tehachapi prisoner 57616 in a report that prison authorities had barred the newspaper Guild Reporter. This confirms ongoing confinement, not a new admission or release date.
Earlier Vacaville detention, separate from Sacramento case
The November 22, 1934 defense issue describes an earlier Vacaville strike arrest: Conklin picketed, organized relief, and was given a 90-day vagrancy sentence while on a stretcher after an automobile accident. This is earlier than the 1934 Sacramento criminal-syndicalism case. The article does not give exact custody endpoints or establish that every day of the sentence was served; the existing 1934 case and counter are not changed.
Daily Worker, February 2, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Decker’s August 10, 1934 Sacramento jail account identifies Conklin as serving a ninety-day sentence at Sacramento County Jail for leading an unemployed demonstration at a relief office. This is a separately described relief-demonstration sentence, rather than the later one-to-fourteen-year criminal-syndicalism sentence. The article gives no exact admission or discharge day and does not establish that she completed all ninety days.
Daily Worker, January 21, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The complete Sacramento roster on PDF pages 17–18 individually names this defendant among seventeen indicted for criminal syndicalism during the 1934 strike crackdown. Printed variants include Lorent Norman, W. H. Huffine and Harry J. Collentz. The threatened six-to-eighty-four-year range is exposure, not an imposed sentence or actual service. This corroborates the existing Sacramento prosecution; no new arrest, personal prison admission, release day or verdict is inferred from the roster.
The June 4 editorial individually names the seven Sacramento labor organizers, including Nora Conklin, as then imprisoned at San Quentin or Tehachapi for agricultural-strike organizing, while advocating repeal of criminal syndicalism and their release. This is contemporary confirmation and defense context for the existing case, not a new conviction or physical custody endpoint. A separate June 2 Los Angeles report on page 3 individually identifies Decker and Conklin at Tehachapi and attributes to prison visitors complaints of unfit food, cells lacking toilet facilities and denial of relief between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. These are attributed institutional-condition reports, not a new medical diagnosis.
The biography describes Sacramento Unemployed Council leadership and Vacaville relief work, and says Conklin was serving ninety days for disturbing the peace after a hunger demonstration when indicted for criminal syndicalism. This supports the existing separate demonstration case rather than another ninety-day case. Claimed ancestry is not independently established.
Daily Worker, August 18, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The editorial says the three women were then confined at Tehachapi after more than a year, with a May 15 prison-board meeting scheduled to fix individual service within one-to-fourteen-year sentences. The board’s earlier terms for five male co-defendants are separate. A future parole-board hearing is not an actual release or a final term for these women.
