Biography
Wilber Hardiman was arrested with James Johnson in Minneapolis in June 1933 after the leader of a mob attempting to lynch them was shot and killed. The annual review reports both men released following the defense campaign. Hardiman’s first conviction was appealed; Johnson’s trial was postponed when the ILD challenged exclusion of Black jurors. Exact personal admission, release, final adjudication and measured duration are not supplied. The printed Wilber spelling is retained. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n02-feb-1934-lab-def.pdf#page=20
The January 1934 Labor Defender reports dismissal of all charges against the Minneapolis anti-lynching defendants in early January. Its opening identifies Hardiman and James Johnson; the closing phrase Wilbur and Hardiman is an evident repeated-name error and does not identify a third person. No exact physical release day or continuous June-to-January confinement is inferred. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n01-jan-1934-lab-def.pdf#page=3
The October 8 Minneapolis report, giving age twenty-two, announces his second-degree-murder trial before Judge Paul W. Guilford after a mob pursuit following a wrestling match. James Johnson faced first-degree assault; an unnamed man received thirty days and defense witnesses were driven away. Those unnamed outcomes are not assigned to Hardiman.