Biography
Rose Kelly was a New York worker jailed in connection with Solomon Harper’s anti-lynching activism in 1930. Contemporary Daily Worker reports identify her as a white worker who intervened when a policeman assaulted Harper following a Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters meeting. The newspaper reported that police took her to a cell and beat her. On April 18, 1930, she and Harper were convicted in New York’s 12th District Magistrate’s Court. Kelly was sent to jail with a five-day sentence; Harper received three months.
The July 4 report recalls Kelly’s trial with Solomon Harper in the anti-lynching campaign. It does not establish an additional arrest or new custody duration. Daily Worker, July 4, 1930, page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n160-NY-jul-04-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The April 15 report identifies Sol Harper and Rose Kelley as defendants after Harper tried to speak against the John H. Wilkins lynching at a Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters meeting and Kelley tried to protect him from police. It reports inciting-to-riot and disorderly-conduct complaints, with trial postponed to April 17. Later April 17 and 18 reports continue the same proceeding; no new arrest is inferred. Daily Worker, April 15, 1930, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n345-NY-apr-15-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
