Biography
Page 3’s October 9 Philadelphia dispatch identifies Robert Clark, organizer of the North Philadelphia Unemployment Council, as jailed the preceding week after refusing a pledge to abandon unemployed-worker organizing. Clark had helped the Fishers, a Black couple at 1533 St. Luke Street, resist eviction and led a five-person delegation to Constable Smith’s office after a further threat. Police arrested Clark for threatening bodily harm and disorderly conduct and held him on $1,000 bail. Judge Francis Shunk Brown ordered him to sign a peace bond; he refused and was committed to Moyamensing prison. The ILD launched a release campaign. This organizer is distinct from the 1861 Missouri civilian of the same name. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n243-NAT-oct-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Page 2's August 17 Philadelphia dispatch reports Clark arrested Wednesday, August 15, after protesting Constable Smith's threats to evict unemployed families. Magistrate Lindell allegedly denied time for ILD counsel or a defense statement and held him under $500 bail. This documented August arrest precedes the separate October peace-bond imprisonment; the five-day sentences of unnamed loitering detainees are not assigned to Clark. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n198-aug-18-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Contemporary original newspaper source; individual page evidence retained in review audit 495. Exact individual custody dates and duration are not inferred from relative dates or collective claims.
Daily Worker, August 18, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
