Biography
Charles Smolikoff was a former Transport Workers organizer jailed without bail in the 1954 Dade County 'subversive activities' probe for refusing, on Fifth Amendment grounds, to answer questions, despite a rheumatic heart condition. The probe targeted people who invoked the Fifth before the county.
The August 2, 1954 National Guardian identifies Smolikoff as a former Transport Workers Union organizer at Pan-American Airways and a gift-shop owner targeted in the Dade County Fifth Amendment contempt proceedings. It reports Judge George E. Holt’s refusal of bail and describes an expected Supreme Court release on twenty-five-hundred-dollar bail. That last statement is a forecast, not proof that he had physically left jail. The same report distinguishes bail already granted to Morris Rohinsky and Jose Carbonell from Smolikoff’s still-anticipated release. Contemporary account, printed page 5.
