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Sara Barr

Era:1930s
State:Massachusetts
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Biography

Sara Barr was among seven anti-fascist demonstrators prosecuted after protesting Nazi propagandist Ernst Hanfstaengl’s visit to Harvard University. The Daily Worker, October 25, 1934, page 1 reports six months in jail and a $20 fine each before Judge George James in East Cambridge, with an order to begin serving immediately and an ILD campaign for their release. The account does not establish their first arrest day, physical jail-admission day, release or actual time served.

Daily Worker, July 16, 1934, page 2: Preferred Stock on Boston Common individually captions Sara Barr with four other Daily Worker distributors. The text describes Barr organizing newspaper sales among Black workers in Boston's South End under a racial-unity slogan. This is political activity and an identified period image, separate from her later anti-Hanfstaengl prosecution. The tiny image shows a largely turned-away figure without a useful identifiable face; no unreliable headshot was assigned. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n169-sect-one-jul-16-1934-DW-LOC.pdf

The October 25 Cambridge dispatch in the October 26, 1934 Daily Worker, page 5, names the seven anti-Hanfstaengl demonstrators and says Judge George James in Middlesex Superior Court increased their sentences the previous day, October 24, to six months and a $20 fine each. It specifies disturbing the peace and speaking without a permit at the Harvard Square protest the preceding June. The paper prints Sarah Barr, corresponding in this same seven-person roster to Sara Barr in the preceding issue. These are imposed penalties; no completed six-month service or physical discharge is inferred.

Daily Worker, PDF page 5.

Daily Worker, July 16, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.

Case

Charges: Disturbing the peace and speaking without a permit at the Harvard Square anti-Hanfstaengl demonstration, June 1934.
Sentenced: Oct 24, 1934
Sentence: Six months in jail and $20 fine; ordered to begin serving immediately. Actual served duration unknown.
Judge: George James
Convicted: Yes