Biography
Robert Minor was the celebrated cartoonist turned communist organizer. Robert Minor was arrested in the July 3, 1928 Wall Street demonstration against U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua, when police broke up the "Hands Off Nicaragua" meeting in New York's financial district and jailed the speakers and dozens of workers. Most of the defendants were given five days.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1934: Page 2 reports from Pekin, Illinois, on July 9 that police arrested him the previous day during a speech on the NRA. Mayor Reyburn M. Russell initially offered release if he left town; Minor refused the condition and was subsequently released unconditionally by the time of the dispatch. Ernest Jones remained jailed. The report connects the action to suppression of a corn-products strike conference. The individual release day, formal charge against Minor and duration are not stated. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n164-jul-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The October 25, 1933 Daily Worker reports that he and Jack Rosenberg were arrested September 6 while picketing in defiance of an injunction at Brooklyn’s Progressive Table Company. Minor represented himself while Joseph Tauber represented Rosenberg. The October proceedings are procedural developments in that episode rather than another arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n256-oct-25-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Harry Raymond’s August 29, 1934 tribute recalls six months served together at Welfare Island after the March 6, 1930 unemployment demonstration and Minor’s illness in their shared cell. This is testimony about actual shared confinement, not proof of a new case or precise endpoints for Minor’s entire term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n207-aug-29-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The September 14, 1929 Daily Worker names Minor and Abraham Markoff among fifteen arrested at the Mexican consulate protest at 225 West 34th Street the previous day. Minor was pulled from an improvised platform; the continuation says the arrested workers were held at the Thirtieth Street station without bail pending Night Court and had not been sentenced when the edition closed. A planned hearing is not treated as physical release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n163-NY-sep-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The October 7, 1933 campaign biography describes Minor leading workers through the three-block injunction zone to the Progressive Table Company in Brooklyn on September 6 and being arrested with another worker. It also recalls the separate March 6, 1930 unemployment demonstration and Welfare Island imprisonment. This corroborates the existing September 6 case; it does not transplant the 1930 prison interval into 1933. The article describes intensive campaign speaking, while the Furniture Worker review points to additional union-paper coverage that has not itself been inspected here. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n241-oct-07-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=6
The March 1, 1934 report describes Minor’s criticism of the National Recovery Administration at its hearings, including testimony concerning strikebreaking and his display of a summons connected with Brooklyn furniture picketing. The displayed summons concerned the labor dispute and does not establish a new arrest of Minor. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n052-mar-01-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Page 1’s Robert Minor birthday-banquet notice recalls Minor, Israel Amter, William Z. Foster and Harry Raymond serving six months at Welfare Island after the 1930 unemployed demonstration. This is a retrospective collective description of the known prosecution; no new custody episode, lifetime total or replacement of source-dated bail interruptions is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n206-aug-28-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Pages 1–2 report the May 10 ACLU demand for federal prosecution of their abductors, citing abandonment on the Navajo reservation as a basis for federal jurisdiction. The Marcantonio inquiry resolution remained in the House Judiciary Committee without consideration that day. Page 4 dates the abduction to May 2, notes Minor’s return from the desert after being beaten and hooded, and describes continued defense work. Investigation demands and scheduled Denver appearances are not an executed prosecution or a new measured prison term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n113-NAT-may-11-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 1 reports Governor Clyde Tingley’s promise to ask Judge M. A. Otero Jr. to summon a grand jury into the Gallup kidnapping, after an ACLU delegation’s conference. Attorney General Frank Patton also promised cooperation. A. L. Wirin sought exposure of the abductors and officials obstructing investigation. Promised inquiry is not an indictment or conviction. Page 6 continues the defense campaign. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n117-NAT-may-16-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Pages 1–2 report Judge M. A. Otero Jr. setting June 10 for a Gallup grand-jury inquiry into their May 2 abduction, with Attorney General Frank H. Patton in charge. The article questions impartiality because Patton also prosecuted the miners. Page 4 prints Allan Taub’s account of a May 20 lawyers’ delegation to Attorney General Homer Cummings seeking federal intervention; no completed prosecution of abductors is reported. Pages 1–2 announce their May 27 New York rally and reception after return from defense work. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n125-NAT-may-25-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Page 6 prints a reader’s challenge to Attorney General Cummings concerning federal jurisdiction over their Gallup kidnapping, beating and obstruction of the miners’ defense. The demand for prosecution is advocacy and does not establish that kidnappers were indicted or convicted. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n153-NAT-jun-27-DW-Q.pdf
Page 2 reports a St. Louis Gallup-defense rally at which a book of miners’ greetings and support was presented to Minor. Angelo Herndon also addressed the meeting; the account says the gathering heard the kidnapping history of Minor and David Levinson. This adds defense-campaign context, not another abduction or prison sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n156-NAT-jul-01-1935-DW-Q.pdf
Nan and Ernest Pendrell’s August 18, 1936 Daily Worker column, page 7 retrospectively names Bob Minor and David Levinson as having been kidnapped and severely beaten in the Gallup, New Mexico miners’ defense case. This corroborates the abduction described in Levinson’s contemporary case account; the retrospective column itself gives no exact abduction or release date and does not establish a prison sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n198-NY-aug-18-1936-DW-Q.pdf#page=7
Crossen’s civil-liberties review recalls his Gallup defense-work abduction and beating and says release followed the governor sending state police to search. This is an additional retrospective account of the existing May 1935 abduction, not a new kidnapping or a verified precise end of restraint. New Masses, August 11, 1936, original PDF page 21. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n07-aug-11-1936-NM.pdf#page=21
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Robert Minor, a term of 6 months–3 years, the year 1930 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location 800 East 55th Street, New York City (hospital). This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935, page 5: In the quoted Harry Eisman memoir reviewed by Martha Campion, Minor is individually named among Foster, Minor, Raymond and Amter arrested in the March 6, 1930 unemployed-demonstration context. This is retrospective corroboration of the existing New York prosecution, without an additional arrest, exact sentence or custody endpoint inferred from the memoir. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n004-Nat-jan-04-1935-DW-LOC.pdf
The March 15, 1930 Daily Worker describes the five elected unemployed delegates appearing before Special Sessions and the Board of Estimate after their initial jail detention. The photo caption recalls refusal of bail and rearrest when bailed, while the news report and Foster meeting advertisement establish liberty before the planned March 24 trial. This is evidence of a pretrial bail gap, not proof of uninterrupted imprisonment from March 6 through later sentence; the exact bail-release day is not supplied here. The refusal of the defense requests for thirty or ten days to prepare is a procedural fact, not a completed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n319-NY-mar-15-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1 and https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n319-NY-mar-15-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The July 18, 1930 Daily Worker identifies Foster, Minor and Amter as still jailed after the March 6 unemployment demonstration and announces that a Communist Party/TUUL delegation would visit Welfare Island that day to notify them of their election nominations. It records their continued confinement and the proposed notification visit, not a new arrest or an accomplished release. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n172-NY-jul-18-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1 and https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n172-NY-jul-18-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The August14 report says ILD attorneys intended to seek permission to appeal to Justice Louis Brandeis because Harlan Stone was in Europe. It alleges the March6 unemployment defendants, despite misdemeanor accusations, had been held incommunicado, denied bail and refused jury trial. The Parole Commission recommended a six-month definite term (ten months for Raymond), but judicial confirmation remained necessary. The proposed October21 release for the three six-month defendants is not an accomplished discharge and cannot replace later verified endpoints. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n195-NY-aug-14-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The Wilkes-Barre report attributes to David Levinson, speaking at the June 9 immigrant-defense conference and evening meeting, a recollection of their joint Gallup defense work, assault, unconsciousness and abandonment in the countryside. It corroborates the existing abduction history without establishing a new episode, exact end of restraint or additional days. The report does not say Minor attended the Wilkes-Barre meeting. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1935/1935-06-14-LAISVE.pdf#page=7
The official House Clerk returns for the November 4, 1930 congressional election list Robert Minor as a candidate for New Yorks20th Congressional District as a Communist. This corroborates electoral activity rather than a fresh arrest or custody endpoint. Source: https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1930election.pdf#page=17
The Daily Worker, August 14, 1933, page 6, identifies Minor leading a delegation of Communists and Socialists to protest the Albany Salvation Army's refusal of accommodation to two Black delegates after the unemployed conference. It says a Socialist Party member, Sam Steinsalt and Minor were assaulted and that police drove into and dispersed the group, refusing a later complaint. This is attributed anti-segregation protest and political violence reporting; the article does not establish Minor's arrest or a new judicial custody interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n194-aug-14-1933-DW-LOC.pdf
Pages 1–2 report his appeal for labor unity at the Chicago conference defending the Workers School against proposed suppression. This is contemporary political-defense context, with no new personal arrest or jail sentence established by this account. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n302-Nat-dec-19-DW-LOC.pdf
Pages 2 and 5 repeat a release demand for Foster, Minor, Amter and Raymond, described as in prison for fighting for unemployment insurance. This is contemporary evidence of an ongoing defense campaign, not a new prosecution, exact gate-release date or additional numerical duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n221-NAT-sep-13-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The March6 New York unemployed-delegation account reports incommunicado detention and fresh charges delaying release until March12, followed by April11 trial and return to the Tombs after conviction without bail. Predicted Sing Sing confinement is prospective. A captioned photograph shows Minor and William Z. Foster shackled en route to the Tombs. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1930/v05n05-may-1930-LD.pdf#page=7
The July 4, 1928 front-page caption identified Rebecca Grecht, Robert Minor and Kate Gitlow among fourteen arrested when police attacked the July 3 Wall Street demonstration against U.S. intervention in Nicaragua. Daily Worker, July 4, 1928, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n157-NY-jul-04-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The July 3 report said Minor initially refused $500 bail to remain with his comrades, then accepted it at Workers Party headquarters' request so he could produce the newspaper. A later July 11 report describes a subsequent jail term for the same demonstration; these events should not be conflated. Daily Worker, July 4, 1928, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n157-NY-jul-04-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The July 11 report said these five Wall Street demonstration defendants remained virtually incommunicado and were expected to be released Friday afternoon. Men were held at the Tombs and women at Jefferson Market Jail. It described refusal of books, newspapers and family access to Minor. The expected Friday release is prospective, not proof of release. Daily Worker, July 11, 1928, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1928/1928-ny/v05-n163-NY-jul-11-1928-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The June 1930 Labor Defender places Robert Minor at Welfare Island, where it reports that he was ill during the unemployed-delegation imprisonment. It reports denial of bail pending appeal and announces a June 3 appeal argument and a separate felonious-assault hearing. These are a contemporary confinement snapshot and scheduled proceedings, not new convictions, completed release dates or total time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1930/v05n06-jun-1930-LD.pdf#page=9
Daily Worker, February 23, 1934: The report announces a February 23, 1934 appearance with Jack Rosenberg in Brooklyn County Court, Part 1, on injunction charges arising from Progressive Table Company strike picketing in the previous election campaign. Minor was to represent himself. This scheduled hearing is not proof of its completed outcome or another arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n047-feb-23-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s remaining-entry review: The July 12, 1928 Daily Worker, page 1, names this defendant among the jailed demonstrators due for release the following day. The July 14 issue, page 1, confirms that Robert Minor and Robert Wolf had been freed from the Tombs after the five-day sentence and welcomed at the previous afternoon's rally. Both complete original pages were visually checked. Together they establish July 13 release. The initial July 3 arrest is retained, but is not used as the beginning of an uninterrupted ten-day imprisonment; the later sentence admission remains month precision.
July 1928 Wall Street prosecution
The July 10, 1928 Daily Worker reports that the hearing and sentencing took place the previous day, July 9, after the July 3 Hands Off Nicaragua demonstration. It individually names Robert Minor among five defendants given five days in the Tombs or a $25 fine, and states that all eight convicted defendants chose jail. Two other defendants had their cases dismissed; separate defendants still awaited trial. The five-day sentence is not used to calculate an actual discharge day or to assume uninterrupted custody from July 3.
Contemporary Gallup chronology
Louis Colman’s 1935 International Labor Defense pamphlet describes Robert Minor and defense lawyer David Levinson being abducted by masked armed men in Gallup about 10 p.m. on May 2, 1935 while organizing the miners’ defense. It recounts their beating and abandonment in the desert, subsequent walk to help, treatment at Tohatchi hospital and return to defense work. This is an account of extrajudicial kidnapping, not a documented jail admission or a new custodial sentence; it is not added to his imprisonment counter. The pamphlet’s allegations about those responsible are advocacy claims, not criminal findings.
Source: Louis Colman, Night Riders in Gallup, International Labor Defense, 1935, pp. 3–6. Existing custody dates and counters are unchanged.
1933 Brooklyn furniture-strike arrest report
The November 1933 Labor Defender bulletin, page 4, individually reports Robert Minor, then a Communist candidate for mayor, being arrested with other workers while picketing a Brooklyn factory struck by the Furniture Workers Industrial Union. This is a separate report from his 1928 Wall Street prosecution. The bulletin does not give a specific arrest day, establish Minor's admission to jail or identify his release, sentence or time served. No additional imprisonment period or days are inferred from this arrest report.
The Daily Worker, July 10, 1928, pages 1–2, reports that Magistrate Maurice H. Gottlieb sentenced the July 3 Wall Street anti-imperialist demonstrators on July 9. Robert Minor, Rebecca Grecht, Harriet Silverman, Emanuel George and Robert Wolf each received five days in the Tombs or a $25 fine and chose jail. Phil Frankfeld, Fanny Plotkin and Anna Bloch received two days or $10; Kate Gitlow and Sophie Melman were dismissed. This contemporary report documents actual committal after the hearing, not completed service of the entire nominal term. The inherited July 1 storage value is explicitly marked month precision in the existing record; it remains month precision, not an asserted July 1 admission day. This report does not establish a discharge day or demonstrate that the previous initial detention began on the sentencing day.
Reviewed original source 2084, relevant PDF pages stated in note.
Orrick Johns’s fiftieth-birthday biography describes Minor attending school in San Antonio from ages ten to fourteen, becoming a Western Union messenger for $3 a week, and apprenticing as a sign painter. Between sixteen and nineteen he worked as a migratory farm laborer, railroad and machine-shop worker, and carpenter in the Southwest, joining carpenters’ Local 717. Johns dates his Socialist Party membership to 1907 and identifies Leo Kaplan as an early political mentor. The account describes his 1916 trip to Mexico, subsequent work on the Mooney defense, and 1918 Petrograd propaganda work opposing Allied intervention. Its references to a near execution in France and illness in a New York prison hospital supply no exact custody endpoints and are not used to calculate another imprisonment period.
The August 1 issue prints a joint statement attributed to the imprisoned New York unemployed delegates Foster, Minor, Amter and Raymond, calling on workers to join the anti-war demonstrations, oppose wage cuts and demand unemployment insurance. It links the prison statement to the March 6 unemployed demonstration. This is a dated record of political writing and activity during the existing case; it does not establish another arrest, a new jail admission or an actual release.
The Trade Union Unity Council requested permission for a committee to consult the imprisoned March 6 unemployed delegates on a municipal relief campaign, and sent its proposals to Foster, Minor, Amter and Raymond. The advertised parole dates and six- or ten-month recommendations are prospective, not proof of a physical release. Engdahl’s campaign announcement identifies Foster as still held at Hart’s Island; the visitation request refers to Welfare Island collectively, so no individual dated transfer is inferred from the differing location references. A separate ILD statement says Commissioner Patterson ordered Minor’s removal from Welfare Island to Rikers Island and withdrawal of privileges after prison-condition revelations. This is an order reported by the source, not independent confirmation of its execution or a new incarceration episode.
The issue prints Commissioner R. C. Paterson’s reply confirming that the TUUC committee of five could not visit the imprisoned unemployed delegates as a body. Individual visits remained governed by the rule allowing one visitor at a time, two weeks apart. This is the documented refusal following the earlier request to consult on unemployment relief, not evidence of a new arrest or discharge. Proposed parole reductions remain prospective.
Daily Worker, July 10, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Release reported before a scheduled December 26 appearance
The December 18, 1930 Daily Worker announces that Robert Minor would make his first public appearance since his release from prison at a Friends of the Soviet Union meeting scheduled for December 26. It identifies him as a member of the unemployed delegation jailed for demanding relief. The wording reports release as already completed by this issue, but does not state the physical gate day. December 26 is the scheduled speech, not a release date. This supplements the existing March 6, 1930 prosecution, rather than creating another episode or bridging the separately documented March bail gap; no admission, release-day field or numerical total is supplied by the announcement.
Daily Worker, December 18, 1930, original page 1. Contemporary allegations and reported durations are attributed to the newspaper.
The September entry reports the mayoral candidate arrested while picketing a furniture factory on an injunction allegation, described as punishable by three years. It corroborates the existing September 6 case; the threatened maximum is not an imposed sentence.
Daily Worker, August 28, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 11, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 16, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, May 25, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, June 27, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 1, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The March 26 Detroit dispatch reports Judge White granting the prosecution’s request to revive the 1922 Bridgman criminal-syndicalism prosecution and set aside a previous separate-trials order. The ILD statement individually names Foster, Browder, Bedacht, William F. Dunne, Bloor, Minor and Rose Pastor Stokes among the indicted leaders. The suggested ten-year exposure is prospective, not a sentence imposed in 1931. The report supplies no new physical arrest, completed trial outcome or complete custody total.
Protest and trial announcements before April 11
The April 8 issue announces a protest for April 9 at the Central Opera House against the threatened imprisonment of the New York March 6 unemployment delegation. Its page 3 continuation anticipates trial that Friday, April 11, in Special Sessions before three judges without a jury and warns of possible six-year penalties. These are campaign announcements and threatened exposure before the proceedings, not proof of a completed trial, an imposed six-year term or an actual admission. An adjacent caption criticizes Chief Magistrate McAdoo’s refusal of bail; it does not date a new remand or erase the separately documented March 12 bail gap. Existing later verdict, sentencing, individual custody intervals and numerical storage are preserved, without treating release demands as evidence of uninterrupted detention.
Daily Worker, April 8, 1930, original pages 1, 3. Accounts and allegations are attributed to the newspaper; prospective proceedings are not treated as completed events.
Daily Worker, January 4, 1935; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The front-page photograph and report identify his September 6 arrest while leading forty pickets at the Progressive Table Company, Brooklyn, in defiance of an anti-picketing injunction. He and twenty-one-year-old Jack Rosenberg were taken to court and secured release without bail that day, with a September 15 hearing pending. Four other arrestees were freed at the station. Minor went directly to the strike meeting after release; pages 1–2 quote his call for disciplined mass picketing. This is actual release, not a final acquittal; exact custody hours remain unmeasured. The already present portrait is retained.
Page 1 reports Minor had been hospitalized for an operation after release from the March 6 unemployment prosecution and was convalescing, with a return appearance announced at the Workers Center banquet. Post-release medical care is not entered as continued prison confinement.
Daily Worker, August 14, 1933; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, December 19, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, September 13, 1930; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The issue anticipates release July 13 after the five-day sentences imposed Monday July 9 for the July 3 Wall Street anti-imperialist demonstration. The announcement is prospective and does not itself establish physical release. The article once misprints the demonstration as July 13, while the Plotkin report and event context give July 3.
The completed UnionSquare welcome occurred yesterday,July13,1928 after this worker’s physical release from the five-day WallStreet-protest sentence. Minor and Wolf came out of the Tombs; Grecht and Silverman came out of the Workhouse. The retrospective report confirms release rather than merely announcing it. Earlier July3 arrest and intervening bail are not silently treated as one continuous term.
The July13 issue announces this afternoon’s UnionSquare welcome for the four named workers after their five-day WallStreet-protest terms. This is release-day reporting, but does not supply an individual physical discharge time; the next issue’s account of the completed welcome provides stronger retrospective confirmation.
Named among the ten Communist defendants who surrendered at St. Joseph, Michigan, in the 1922 Bridgman convention prosecution. A companion report says four had furnished bail and the remaining six were temporarily free on recognizance, without identifying which individual had which status. No individual continuous jail interval, conviction or sentence is inferred.
The issue reports the four elected unemployed delegates still confined and prints Commissioner R. C. Paterson’s August 21 letter denying repeated political conferences in prison. It permits ordinary individual screened visits and correspondence while recalling the earlier Welfare Island nomination ceremony. This is contemporary confinement and visiting-policy evidence; it does not erase pretrial bail gaps, prove a fresh admission, or replace later established release dates.
A March 24, 1930 pretrial hearing report
The March 25, 1930 Daily Worker names Robert Minor among the five New York unemployment delegates whose Special Sessions hearing the previous day was continued to April 11. It reports police excluding spectators and a proposed labor jury, and describes defense attorney Joseph Brodsky seeking time to prepare witnesses and moving pictures of police violence. In this March 24 hearing, the report identifies Assistant District Attorney Unger as opposing a longer delay and Judge Voorhees as denying it. These are hearing-specific roles, not a finding that Unger was the sole prosecutor at the later trial or that Voorhees replaced the separately recorded trial panel. April 11 was still a future hearing date. The newspaper’s rhetoric about the period since arrest is not evidence of continuous imprisonment across the separately documented March 12 bail release; no new admission, discharge, conviction or numerical custody total is inferred.
Daily Worker, March 25, 1930, original pages 1 and 3. Allegations and courtroom descriptions are attributed to this contemporary newspaper.
Herndon recalls Robert Minor among the speakers arrested in the corridor after the May 31, 1931 All-Southern Scottsboro Defense Conference in Chattanooga, together with Harry Haywood, B. D. Amis and Tom Wilson. The stated accusation was blocking traffic. They were released after paying ten-dollar fines; no measured custody length or jail transfer is supplied.
Angelo Herndon, Let Me Live (Random House, 1937), printed122–124 (PDF130–132). Full autobiography.
