Biography
Roscoe Dameron was a Harlan miner held awaiting trial after the 5 May 1931 Battle of Evarts, one of the more than a hundred National Miners' Union miners and sympathizers jailed in the Harlan County, Kentucky coal war. The Harlan County, Kentucky coal war of 1931 pitted the Communist-led National Miners' Union against the operators, Sheriff John Henry Blair's deputies, and the state militia. After the 5 May 1931 "Battle of Evarts," in which a gun battle left several dead, more than a hundred miners were jailed: dozens were indicted for murder and faced the electric chair, dozens more charged with "banding and confederating" or criminal syndicalism. Clarence Darrow and the ILD led the defense.
The New Leader, April 2, 1932, page 10, individually names Roscoe Dameron among nine Evarts coal-strike defendants confined in Clark County jail at Winchester, Kentucky, facing proceedings over mine guard Jim Daniels' death in the May 5 battle. It says the miners had been confined since the battle, at Harlan and then Winchester after a change of venue granted by Judge D. C. Jones. It announces trial for the coming Monday before Circuit Judge D. S. Shackelford and appeals for General Defense Committee funds to bring defense witnesses from Harlan. This is contemporary pretrial custody and defense evidence, not a completed trial, death sentence or release. The battle date is not automatically each defendant's individual arrest day. Later outcomes remain preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-leader/1932/v13n14-apr-02-1932-NL.pdf
The January 1932 Labor Defender winter-aid roster individually lists Roscoe Dameron at Clark County Jail at Winchester, Kentucky. This is a contemporary custody-location observation, not an admission or release date; the roster gives no prisoner number or individual custody duration.
Labor Defender, January 1932, PDF page 10, winter-aid roster.
The New Leader, April 2, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
