Biography
Sonia Mason was a Young Communist League organizer in Milwaukee. She was arrested during the March 6, 1930 unemployment demonstration, in which thousands of workers demanded jobs or relief. Tried with other demonstration leaders, she was convicted of unlawful assembly and riot and sentenced to three months. International Labor Defense attorneys Albert Goldman and G. Gulbanian handled the defense and appeal. She served three months and was released on August 22. At the subsequent Sacco and Vanzetti memorial meeting, she spoke for the released prisoners and urged support for the demonstration leaders who remained confined.
The Milwaukee report names this defendant among five convicted of riot and unlawful assembly arising from the March 6 unemployment demonstration. This article supplies no individual sentence and does not alter the independently recorded later outcome. Daily Worker, May 12, 1930, page 1. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v06-n368-NY-may-12-1930-DW-LOC.pdf
The September 8, 1930 Laisve, page 5, reproduces an International Labor Defense political-prisoner directory. Its row prints Sonia Mason, a term of 3 months, the year 1930 in the sentencing-year column, and confinement or correspondence location County Jail, 822 West Kilbourn Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This is an attributed historical directory entry; printed years and nominal terms are not exact intake dates or measured time served, and mailing boxes do not independently identify a prison. The directory contains stale or conflicting chronology, so this row does not override independently established conviction, death or release facts. Source: https://www.spauda2.org/laisve/archive/1930/1930-09-08-LAISVE.pdf#page=5
The August 26, 1930 Daily Worker reports that Sonia Mason had actually been released August 22 after serving the reported three-month March 6-demonstration sentence. She spoke at the Sacco-Vanzetti commemoration for the workers freed with her. This supplies a physical discharge day; the nominal months are not converted to an exact day count. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n205-NY-aug-26-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3