Biography
Willie Joe Hart was a seventeen-year-old Black UCAPAWA-CIO volunteer organizer in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, and the son of union secretary Hosea Hart. Sheriff Cliff Corprew jailed him in 1938 on robbery and rape charges during a campaign against the union. An investigating committee sent by Governor Bibb Graves questioned the charges. When Hosea sought information about his son, Corprew threatened the union. Willie Joe received a fifteen-year sentence but was subsequently released.
