Tom Johnson
Little is known about Communist militant Tom Johnson, including his dates of birth and death. Dick J. Reavis said that he joined the CPUSA in 1926. Mark Solomon alleges that he had earlier been with the IWW. What seems clear is that in 1929 he was in Cleveland, Ohio for the Party first as an organizer for the Trade Union Educational League and then as the District Secretary of the Trade Union Unity League. In the same year, along with a number of others, he was arrested and convicted under Ohio’s criminal syndicalism law (a conviction later overturned).
From early 1930 until mid-1931, he was the district organizer of the CPUSA's District 17 (the Deep South). During this time he wrote frequently for the Daily Worker and the Southern Worker. After leaving District 17 for health reasons, he returned to New York.
The Daily Worker in late 1931 described him as a member of the Party’s Central Committee. Dick J. Reavis states that he was also a member of the Org Buro, assigned to teach a course in a Party school, and tasked with fund-raising for the legendary Harlan County strike. In early 1932 he was put in charge of the Party's work in Kentucky and Tennessee. The Daily Worker in late 1932 listed him as the National Organization Secretary of the National Miners Union.
In 1934-35 the New Masses published a number of Johnson's writings. Also in 1935, Johnson wrote a pamphlet published by the Party entitled The Reds in Dixie: Who Are the Communists and What Do They Fight For in the South?
We have been unable to discover anything more about him after that date.
Works and Related Articles:
1927: 7 More Jailed in Cleveland Jobless Case, Daily Worker, November 23, 1927
1927: Workers' Schools Grow Fast over United States, Daily Worker, November 28, 1927
1928: Workers' School Opens New Term in Cleveland, O., Daily Worker, March 15, 1928
1929: Pledge Support of Food Union. A.F.L. "Organizer" is Exposed in Cleveland, Daily Worker, May 21, 1929
1929: Arrest 8 T.U.E.L. Speakers at Organization Meet at Easton Axle Plant, Cleveland, Daily Worker, June 19, 1929
1929: Foster Tour in Ohio Centers. Organization Work is Prepared by TUUL, Daily Worker, October 23, 1929
1929: Steel Trust in Ohio Convicts 3 of Syndicalism, Daily Worker, November 22, 1929
1929: Expose Verdict by Steel Trust Jury and Court. Show How Ohio Three Were Railroaded, Daily Worker, November 26, 1929
1929: Long Prison Terms for 3 Ohio Workers, Daily Worker, December 11, 1929
1930: Growth of Tendencies Toward Fascism, Daily Worker, January 3, 1930
1930: A Month in the Ohio Pen, Daily Worker, February 1, 1930
1930: Bolshevizing the Party, Daily Worker, February 8, 1930
1930: Are Negroes Hard to Organize?, Daily Worker, March 3, 1930
1930: Steel Turns South, Daily Worker, March 24, 1930
1930: Thousands Will Demonstrate on May Day in South for First Time in History, Daily Worker, April 26, 1930
1930: Lynch Terror and the Party, Daily Worker, May 21, 1930
1930: Mass Pressure Compels Reversing of Ohio Criminal Syndicalist Conviction, Daily Worker, May 26, 1930
1930: Two Conventions, Daily Worker, May 27, 1930
1930: Slogan of Self-Determination, Daily Worker, May 29, 1930
1930: A.F.L. Chiefs Vote Death Indictment in Atlanta. Prosecutor Declares Will Send to Chair Every Comunist Who Comes to State, Includes All Militants, Daily Worker, June 2, 1930
1930: Jail 3 Organizing Negroes; Death Law Always Anti-Labor, Daily Worker, June 9, 1930
1930: Sedition Charge Threat in Tenn. By Legion, Cops , Daily Worker, June 10, 1930
1930: Civil Liberties Man Aids Legion, Daily Worker, June 12, 1930
1930: New Lynch Talk in Birmingham, Daily Worker, July 8, 1930
1930: Kidnap Unity League Leader, Daily Worker, July 31, 1930
1930: Communists and Election, Southern Worker, August 16, 1930
1930: Birmingham Police Are Ordered to Murder Communist Organizer [Tom Johnson], Daily Worker, September 5, 1930
1930: "Southern Worker" Faces Tremendous Tasks, Daily Worker, September 9, 1930
1930: Alabama Politicians Exposed, Southern Worker, September 13, 1930
1930: On the Negro Question, [from a speech delivered at the 7th Convention, CPUSA] Daily Worker, September 24, 1930
1930: Mistakes in Our Trade Union Work Part I; Part II, Daily Worker, September 25 and 26, 1930
1930: Turn Defeat Into Success in Alabama Election Campaign, Southern Worker, September 27, 1930
1930: Workers Given 1-10 Years by Ohio Boss Jury, Daily Worker, November 13, 1930
1930: Happy Valley, Daily Worker, November 19, 1930
1930: International Workers Order in the South, Daily Worker, November 20, 1930
1930: Rayon Workers Prepare for Struggle, Daily Worker, November 26, 1930
1931: Five Organizers on Trial in B'ham, Southern Worker, January 10, 1931
1931: Party Life: Improving the Work of the Units, Daily Worker, February 11, 1931
1931: Ten Years Prison for Every Communist in Alabama, Daily Worker, February 21, 1931
1931: The National Revolutionary Struggle of the Negroes, Part I; Part II; Part III, Southern Worker, February 28, March 7 and 14, 1931
1931: The Scottsboro Lynch Verdict, Daily Worker, April 16, 1931
1931: 200 Negro, White Delegates Open All Southern Scottsboro Conference, Daily Worker, June 1, 1931
1931: Birmingham Police Arrest So. Conference Delegates in Attack on Fight To Save Nine, Daily Worker, June 3, 1931
1931: 104 White and Negro Delegates in Chatta. Plan Wide Scotssboro Fight. Jail Amis, Haywood, Johnson, Carson, LSNR, Party Leaders, Southern Worker, June 6, 1931
1931: New Forces - A Product of the Scottsboro Campaign, Daily Worker, June 19, 1931
1931: Economic Forms in Southern Agriculture, The Communist, August 1931
1931: Establishing Contacts and Building Organization in the Shops, Daily Worker, October 5, 1931
1931: How to Use the Party Apparatus and the Political Campaigns of the Party to Build the Shop Organization, Part I; Part II, Daily Worker, October 9 and 10, 1931
1931: Spread "The Liberator" in the South, Daily Worker, October 23, 1931
1932: Virtual Martial Law Prevails Thru Whole Strike Area; Raid Homes, Daily Worker, February 15, 1932
1932: A Typical Incident in the Life of Harry Simms, Daily Worker, February 25, 1932
1932: The [Harlan County] Kentucky Strike - Our Mistales and Their Correction, Part I; Part II; Part III, Daily Worker, March 9-11, 1932
1932: Coal Operators' "Justice" - Southern Style, Daily Worker, March 30, 1932
1932: New Arrests in Kentucky; Meet Goes On, Daily Worker, April 4, 1932
1932: The United Front in the Ohio [Miners'] Strike, Part I; Part II, Daily Worker, May 28, 30, 1932
1932: The Miners Are on the March Again, Daily Worker, June 30, 1932
1932: The Fight Against Sectarianism in the National Miners Union, The Communist, August 1932
1932: Labor Age: Why the N.M.U. Has Failed, Labor Age, September 1932
1933: Mooney Calls for Joint Fight for Him and Scottsboro Boys, Western Worker, April 10, 1933
1934: Dixie Jew, New Masses, July 24, 1934
1934: Vagrancy Trial, The Producers News, September 20, 1934
1935: The Reds in Dixie. Who Are the Communists and What Do They Fight For in the South?
1935: I Handed Out Relief, New Masses, March 5, 1935
1935: Jail Break, New Masses, April 2, 1935
1935: Cyanide for Lunch, New Masses, June 11, 1935
1937: Los Angeles Thief Branded Liar by C.P., Western Worker, December 20, 1937
1937: Deputy Admits Kent Aids Cops; Releases Wife, Western Worker, December 23, 1937
1937: Western Worker Editorial: We Smell a Rat, and It Isn't Only Kent, Western Worker, December 23, 1937
1937: Kent-Scott Gets Tangled On the Stand, Western Worker, December 27, 1937
1937: Arthur Scott a Police Spy, C.P. Charges. Tom Johnson Cleared in Opinion of Communist State Committee, Western Worker, December 27, 1937
1938: Kent-Scott-Robin Hood Awaits Ruling of Court, Western Worker, January 15, 1938
1938: Court Drops Case Against Tom Johnson, Western Worker, March 1, 1938
1938: Johnson to File Damage Suit for Arrest in L.A., Western Worker, March 2, 1938
1939: Bridges' Frameup Falls Down, New Masses, May 9, 1939