Biography
Oreal Grossman was a Rhode Island civil-liberties attorney born in Providence and trained at Northeastern University. He practiced in Pawtucket and worked with the International Labor Defense and American Civil Liberties Union. On September 13, 1934, during the general textile strike, he went to Providence police headquarters to represent imprisoned workers. Police detained him after questioning him about his political views. He was held incommunicado for thirty-six hours and released on bail on a lottery charge based on his possession of a benefit-banquet ticket.
Walter Snow’s firsthand report describes Grossman as 33, Providence-born, with a Pawtucket law office. He denied Communist Party membership while affirming Marx’s economic teachings. During the September 13 police interrogation he was denied telephone access to counsel, fingerprinted without a charge, and held in a detention pen before transfer to a damp steel cell with artist Joseph Planka. He appeared in court handcuffed on Saturday and was freed on bail after 36 hours; the lottery allegation rested on a banquet ticket offering a Soviet trip. The proposed September 25 trial is not its outcome. Pages 13-14. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1934/v12n13-sep-25-1934-NM.pdf