Biography
Wirt R. Taylor was an Unemployed Council organizer in Birmingham, Alabama. On November 7, 1932, he and Alice Burke were arrested after leading a demonstration of Black and white workers demanding unemployment relief. He was convicted in the city recorder’s court and again by a circuit-court jury on May 9, 1933. On June 5, the court imposed a $100 fine, 100 days of hard labor for failure to pay it and another 150 days of hard labor. Taylor developed an infected foot while held in Jefferson County Jail and had difficulty obtaining medical treatment. The International Labor Defense furnished $2,000 bond, securing his and Burke’s release on July 24, 1933, pending appeal. Taylor had worked as a telephone and telegraph lineman in Texas, Missouri and Alabama. His father was H. C. Taylor. In October 1933, police again jailed him after raiding an interracial unemployment-relief meeting at Birmingham's Old Pythian Hall. He later helped organize strike committees and flying squadrons during the 1934 textile strike.
The October 9, 1934 Daily Worker profile of Wirt Taylor names blocking traffic, disturbing the peace and meeting without a permit as the charges against Taylor and Alice Burke following their November 7, 1932 relief demonstration. It describes Taylor’s infected foot and the prison protests that helped secure medical attention. Its six-month and fine-based description differs from the separately recorded final hard-labor judgment; the report does not replace that judgment or establish an additional actual term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n242-NAT-oct-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
The November 8, 1932 Birmingham report published November 9 describes the November 7 relief demonstration of Black and white unemployed workers. Taylor and Burke attempted to explain the delegation’s demands, and city commissioners ordered their arrest. This adds contemporary organizing context to the existing November 7 prosecution; the order itself supplies no new measured detention or release and does not alter the independently established July 24, 1933 bail endpoint. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n268-NY-nov-09-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
A November 11 Birmingham dispatch printed in the November 12, 1932 Daily Worker, page 1, reports an initial sentence of six months at hard labor and a $100 fine for the November 7 unemployment demonstration. It describes efforts to secure bail, not an accomplished release. This contemporary initial sentence is a separate stage from the later 1933 jury proceeding and judgment already documented in the case. The report does not state the exact initial sentencing day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n271-NY-nov-12-1932-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
Labor Defender, August 1933, PDF page 22: The Birmingham district report recalls their November 7, 1932 arrests at the old courthouse unemployment-relief meeting and reports two trials followed by a $100 fine and six months at hard labor in Judge McElroy’s court. It describes an intended Supreme Court defense campaign. This nominal six-month account differs from the separately documented June 5 judgment and does not replace it, prove six months actually served, or create another arrest. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n08-aug-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=22
The June 22 report places them in custody following the November 7, 1932 unemployment demonstration and six-month sentences plus $100 fines. It describes additional confinement because the fines could not be paid and says Burke was ill and denied medical attention. The published term is not used as a complete actual duration. Daily Worker, June 22, 1933, original PDF page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v010-n149-NY-jun-22-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=2
A contemporary report of illness and denied treatment
The July 20 issue places Wirt Taylor in Jefferson County Jail, Birmingham, and reports that the unemployed organizer had an infection contracted there, was without medical attention and was in danger of losing a leg. Its appeal sought funds for the cases of Taylor and Alice Burke and for their release on bond. That appeal is prospective, not evidence of an earlier actual release. General accounts of men refusing food, flooding cells and being put in solitary confinement are not automatically assigned to Taylor individually. This supplements the existing account of his infected foot with attributed contemporary conditions evidence; it supplies no new admission, discharge, measured duration or additional custody episode and does not alter the independently recorded July 24 release.
Daily Worker, July 20, 1933, original pages 2. Accounts and allegations are attributed to the newspaper.
The January 29 Birmingham dispatch says Wirt Taylor, Lee Gann and John Clark were arrested yesterday at the Woodlawn relief station while presenting demands for increased relief and against forced labor. This supplies a separate January 28, 1933 arrest, distinct from the November 1932 demonstration and later October raid. No physical intake, discharge or measured duration is supplied.
The review reports Taylor and Alice Burke released on bond after their Birmingham relief sentences. It corroborates the existing bail episode, without a new exact date or a new detention.
The report warns Taylor’s infected foot might require amputation without hospital treatment. It attributes the infection to Jefferson County jail filth and delayed care after the November 7, 1932 relief-demonstration arrest. It reports May 9 conviction and summarizes a $100 fine, costs and six-month term with additional service as about a year, a description retained alongside the more specific independently sourced labor-day terms. No amputation or release is claimed in this issue.
