Biography
Russell Knight was a striker held in an isolation cell after contracting smallpox in jail. Russell Knight was one of the sixteen Gastonia defendants held in the Gaston County jail on the first-degree murder charge — facing the electric chair — after the 7 June 1929 killing of Police Chief Aderholt. The murder charge against the defendants outside the convicted seven was dropped before the October retrial. On 7 June 1929, police attacked the National Textile Workers Union tent colony at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina, and Police Chief O. F. Aderholt was killed in the exchange of fire. Sixteen strikers and organizers were charged with his murder — a frame-up, the defense held, aimed at breaking the communist-led Southern textile drive. The International Labor Defense mounted a national campaign for the Gastonia defendants.
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929, page 1: The June 13 bulletin prints Russel Knight among thirteen Gastonia defendants charged with murder in amended complaints; fifty-eight others faced assault with intent to kill. Twenty-four unnamed prisoners had been released, but no strike leader or organizer was among them. These are initial changing accusations, not the October verdict or a release of this named person. Attorney Jimison had first interviewed the prisoners; Major Bulwinkle, the mill company attorney, directed the prosecution. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n084-NY-jun-14-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
Daily Worker, July 22, 1929, page 3: Liston Oak’s July 21 dispatch names this existing Gastonia defendant among possible targets of the prosecution’s effort to narrow the case. The predicted reduction or dismissal of some charges is prospective. Fifteen remained in Gaston County jail and eight others were out on bonds collectively; this does not establish a new individual release or the final October verdict. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n116-NY-jul-22-1929-DW-LOC.pdf
The August 26, 1929 report names this defendant among the sixteen assembled for the Charlotte Gastonia trial before Judge M. V. Barnhill. It distinguishes nine Southern Loray workers from seven organizers and discusses the defense’s planned police-violence evidence. The allegations are attributed defense accounts. Trial appearance is not a new arrest or proof that a previously bailed defendant had been returned to jail; later convictions and individually established bail releases remain separate. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n146-NY-aug-26-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The October 4, 1929 Gastonia report individually names the nine defendants physically released Monday, September 30 after the prosecution ceased pursuing them in the Aderholt murder case. Its collective four-month description is not an individually measured custody total. This is the existing Gastonia prosecution. Daily Worker, October 4, 1929, original PDF page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v06-n180-NY-oct-04-1929-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
1920s custody review: The Daily Worker of October 4, 1929, pages 1 and 3, prints a statement by nine Gastonia defendants describing their jail detention and release. The signature list explicitly includes this defendant (Delmar Hampton appears as Del Hampton). This establishes custody and release in 1929. Both are recorded at year precision only. The report describes Monday morning release, but its collective wording includes women already released on bail earlier; dismissal of charges must not automatically be equated with each individual physical discharge. Exact admission and discharge remain unresolved. No exact duration is calculated. The inherited arrest date is not independently confirmed by this statement.
Source: Daily Worker, October 4, 1929, pages 1 and 3, original pages visually inspected.
Daily Worker, June 14, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, July 22, 1929; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
A signed account of union solidarity while awaiting trial
A letter signed Russell Knight in the July 17, 1929 Daily Worker, headed Gaston County Jail, describes the April 1 Loray strike and says he is among the men and women confined awaiting trial on the murder accusation. He asks workers to aid the imprisoned strikers and attributes the prosecution to opposition to their union activity. This is an individually signed account of the already recorded detention, not an allocation of a collective prisoner count, a new episode or an exact admission/release date. The letter does not independently verify the separate smallpox account or supply a custody duration.
Daily Worker, July 17, 1929, original page 2. Source statements and allegations remain attributed to the named writer and newspaper.
His account distinguishes an Elizabethton organizing arrest and release from the subsequent Gastonia dragnet; exact dates unreported. LD1929.
