Biography
Roy Mahoney was a Black bricklayer and labor organizer in East Liverpool, Ohio. He worked at his trade from childhood and joined the Communist Party and Trade Union Unity League. Authorities arrested him with six other workers following an unemployed demonstration in 1931, releasing the others while holding him on an Ohio criminal-syndicalism charge. The International Labor Defense supplied $4,000 bail, and he was out of jail by March 11. His prosecution prompted a mass defense campaign and ended in acquittal. Earlier, he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow, joining other Black American Communists studying there in the 1920s.
The June 1931 Labor Defender identifies Roy Mahoney as a Black worker leader of the February 25 unemployment demonstrations in East Liverpool, Ohio, and reports his acquittal on criminal-syndicalism charges after a mass demonstration outside the court. February 25 dates the demonstration; the passage does not independently establish the day of arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1931/v06n06-jun-1931-LD.pdf#page=18
