Biography
Robert Allen was a defendant in the 1929 Gastonia textile-strike prosecution. The December10 Charlotte dispatch, published December11, explicitly reports his case had been nol prossed. It alleges that he subsequently provided an affidavit used against International Labor Defense organizer C. D. Saylors. The same issue’s named list of the seven convicted defendants includes W. M. McGinnis, not Allen. The former biography incorrectly attributed an October21 conviction, a five-to-seven-year sentence, bail flight and Soviet exile to Allen; those claims are not supported for this defendant. The source gives no precise physical release day or completed custody duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n238-NY-dec-11-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The August 26, 1929 report names this defendant among the sixteen assembled for the Charlotte Gastonia trial before Judge M. V. Barnhill. It distinguishes nine Southern Loray workers from seven organizers and discusses the defense’s planned police-violence evidence. The allegations are attributed defense accounts. Trial appearance is not a new arrest or proof that a previously bailed defendant had been returned to jail; later convictions and individually established bail releases remain separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n146-NY-aug-26-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
His July 4 prison letter identifies him as local Workers International Relief secretary and describes destruction of relief supplies, evictions and the June 7 police raid followed by mass arrests. These are Allen’s attributed allegations and recollections. The letter supports the existing detention without restoring the incorrect claim that he was one of the seven later convicted or changing his separate case outcome. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n122-NY-jul-29-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
The October 4, 1929 Gastonia report individually names the nine defendants physically released Monday, September 30 after the prosecution ceased pursuing them in the Aderholt murder case. Its collective four-month description is not an individually measured custody total. This is the existing Gastonia prosecution. Daily Worker, October 4, 1929, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n180-NY-oct-04-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
A letter attributed to the Gastonia relief secretary
The July 17, 1929 Daily Worker introduces Robert Allen as local secretary of the Workers International Relief in Gastonia and one of the strikers then jailed on the murder charge. In the accompanying letter, he links the prosecution to the Loray strike and describes long hours, low pay and the families affected by the dispute. His statements are attributed to that contemporary letter. This establishes a 1929 detention context only: it does not prove that he was one of the later convicted seven, establish a sentence, Soviet exile or vital dates, or identify the separate Freedom Rider Robert Allen Miller. The separately sourced case dismissal and corrections already preserved in this profile remain unchanged; this letter supplies no precise discharge day or measured custody duration.
Daily Worker, July 17, 1929, original page 2. Source statements and allegations remain attributed to the named writer and newspaper.
