Vincent Kemenovich
Biography
Vincent Kemenovich was a coal miner and National Miners’ Union organizer. He participated in the movement to replace the United Mine Workers leadership during the coal strikes of the late 1920s and later organized in the Kentucky coalfields. Officers arrested him on January 4, 1932, in the raid on the union’s Pineville headquarters. He was held in Bell County Jail on criminal-syndicalism charges while the International Labor Defense organized the defense. He was released on bond from Pineville on April 15, after 102 days in custody. He was also targeted in immigration deportation proceedings.
The May 14, 1932 Bridgeport, Ohio account identifies Vince Kemenovitch as arrested in Wheeling, West Virginia, and held by immigration authorities under $2,500 cash bail during a National Miners Union tour. It distinguishes this detention from his recently completed Pineville criminal-syndicalism imprisonment, described approximately as three months. The already documented January 4–April 15 Pineville interval is preserved; no exact Wheeling admission, discharge or executed deportation is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n115-NY-sect-one-may-14-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The January 5, 1932 Daily Worker names the nine organizers arrested when deputies raided National Miners Union headquarters in Pineville at 10 a.m. January 4. They were actually jailed under $5,000 bond each on criminal-syndicalism accusations. The announced hearing was prospective. Printed variants include Kamenovich, Michaelson, Norman Martins, Marguerite Fontaine and Julio Parker; these are matched to the established cohort without duplicate profiles or changes to later individually documented releases. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n004-NY-jan-05-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The January 7, 1932 issue reports Vern Smith telephoning from Pineville county jail on January 6, with the nine still held. Miners guarded the jail against a threatened kidnapping after a January 5 protest march. The hearing was postponed to January 7; neither a kidnapping nor the eventual hearing outcome is established here. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n006-NY-jan-07-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The March 2, 1932 issue reports a March 1 grand-jury indictment of the January 4 cohort, Doris Parks, Frank Mason and Gilbert Green. Its collective claim that all nine were still jailed is unreliable for individual custody endpoints: Clarina Michelson has a separately documented February 14 physical release to a Knoxville hospital. That release is retained, with no inferred March rearrest; the report also explicitly describes Parks as arrested later than January 4. Threatened maximum penalties are not imposed sentences or time served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n053-NY-mar-02-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The March 14, 1932 Kentucky defense report describes continuing jail conditions, restricted mail and counsel, and Dorothy Weber’s serious influenza. It explicitly places Vern Smith, Ann Barton and Doris Parks in Harlan County jail after transfer from Pineville; transfer is not release. The January 4 list and later-arriving prisoners are distinguished, and a May 26 trial date and proposed bond financing remain prospective. Existing individually verified discharge dates are retained, without assigning every later detainee the January 4 arrest or a particular facility. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n062-NY-mar-14-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The June 16, 1932 Daily Worker names Borich and Kemenovich among labor organizers still threatened with deportation under Secretary of Labor Doak. These named proceedings support the existing immigration-defense record, without establishing a new physical arrest, completed removal or precise custody endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n143-jun-16-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
Page 3 reports the Pittsburgh anti-deportation conference demanding withdrawal of deportation charges against the National Miners Union organizer. The demand does not establish a new physical admission or executed deportation. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n189-NY-aug-09-1932-DW-LOC.pdf
The August 26, 1930 Daily Worker reports that Vincent Kemenovich and Max Salzman were arrested when they went to see Anna Harkoff at the Avella squire’s office after the August 22meeting shooting. Police questioned and threatened them over political and union organizing, then explicitly released them. This Pennsylvania detention precedes and is distinct from the 1932 Pineville and immigration cases. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1930/v07-n205-NY-aug-26-1930-DW-LOC.pdf#page=4
Labor Defender, August 1932, printed pages 145 and 149 (PDF pages 6 and 10): Peter Chaunt's Protect the Foreign Born and Robert Dunn's Dies Deportation Drive describe the campaign against labor organizers. Chaunt prints Vincent Kamenivich among mine organizers ordered deported. The established Kemenovich cohort identity is retained; no completed foreign removal is inferred. Their accounts of the proposed Dies bill and its supporters are contemporary advocacy; proposed legislation and feared foreign penalties are not individual sentences served. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n08-aug-1932-LD.pdf
Printed page 168 names this labor leader among those facing deportation in the Doak campaign, alongside Mills and other organizers. It calls the proposed removals impending and urges defense. This corroborates existing immigration proceedings, without asserting actual deportation, a new arrest or a criminal conviction. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1932/v08n09-sep-1932-LD.pdf
The March chronology lists these people as actually arrested in the National Miners Union office raid and held under $5,000 bond on criminal-syndicalism charges. Its January 4 heading conflicts with the January 7 date in other reports; the discrepancy is retained without assigning a new exact arrest field. Warrants for other organizers are not treated as executed arrests; no precise physical discharge or complete duration is established. Daily Worker, March 12, 1932, original PDF page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n061-NY-mar-12-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The April 15 Knoxville dispatch individually named these prisoners as released on bond from Pineville jail in the Kentucky coal-strike cases. Daily Worker, April 18, 1932, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n092-NY-sect-one-apr-18-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
The July 1933 Labor Defender district report individually names Vincent Kamenovich among thirteen National Miners Union organizers held for deportation in the Pittsburgh-area campaign. This adds a contemporary detention report in the existing immigration proceedings; it does not establish a new arrest day, executed deportation, physical discharge or completed custody total. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n07-jul-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=23
Daily Worker, August 9, 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
The delegation report identifies Agnes Kamenovitch as his wife and describes her participation in the September 7 Washington protest against deportation policy. The spelling variant and family testimony do not establish a new detention or release.
Labor Defender, August 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Labor Defender, September 1932; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Page 1’s individually identified photograph places this person among the Kentucky–Tennessee strike leaders held in Pineville jail; the caption names organizations and criminal-syndicalism prosecution. Pages 1 and 3 report threats of transfer to Harlan gunmen, postponed habeas proceedings before Judge Jones, and miners demanding protection of the prisoners. These are attributed threats, not an accomplished transfer, lynching or final conviction. Printed Marguerite Fontaine, Dorothy Ross and Clarina Michaelson variants are preserved where applicable. Existing separately documented release dates are unchanged.
Vern Smith’s account, written from Bell County Jail, says deputies raided the National Miners Union headquarters at 105 Virginia Avenue, Pineville, on January 4, 1932 and seized union and ILD cards, dues books and defense literature. It individually names Vincent Kemenovich among those arrested inside. Smith says the seized literature was the prosecution’s evidence and describes the defendants being held for a grand jury after an examining hearing, with aggregate bail of $93,000. These are his attributed defense account and preliminary proceedings, not a final conviction or a newly established release date.
Labor Defender, February 1932, printed 28–29, 35 (PDF 8, 9, 14).
The Kentucky-Tennessee Strike narrative individually places this defendant in Pineville jail after the January 4 headquarters arrests. It describes crowded quarters, women sleeping four to a bed, delayed hearings, missing/replaced warrants and prosecutors using union and relief literature as criminal-syndicalism evidence. The January 12 hearing narrative and January 13 grand-jury referral are retained without turning the threatened twenty-one-year maximum into an imposed or served term. Later independently established releases are not overwritten.
