Biography
Thomas DeWitt Dennis Jr. was a Black Detroit Communist Party organizer prosecuted under the Smith Act. A jury convicted him on February 19, 1954, and the court sentenced him to four years and six months in prison and a $10,000 fine. Unable to furnish the increased appeal bond, he was taken to the Wayne County jail and transferred ten days later to the federal correctional institution at Milan. An appeals court ordered a new trial in 1958, and the government abandoned the prosecution.
