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Grace Carlson

Released
Full name:Grace Holmes Carlson
Date of birth:13. 11. 1906
Date of death:07. 07. 1992
Age:85 Deceased
Gender:Female
Race:White
Era:1940s
State:Minnesota
Time Imprisoned:
3 Years 1 Month 7 Days
Support
Marxism Socialism Communism Socialist Workers Party
Grace Carlson

Biography

Socialist Workers Party leader and 1940 SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from Minnesota, with a Ph.D. in educational psychology. The only woman convicted in the December 1941 Minneapolis Smith Act trial, she received a 16-month federal sentence and served at the Federal Reformatory for Women in Alderson, West Virginia.

The only woman convicted in the 1941 Minneapolis Smith Act trial. PhD University of Minnesota 1933. Delegate to the SWP's founding 1938 convention; Minnesota state organizer; SWP's vice-presidential candidate 1948. Served 16 months alone at the federal women's prison at Alderson, WV. In 1952 abruptly left the SWP, returned to Catholicism, became a psychology professor advocating social justice as a "Catholic Marxist."

Cases

Federal Prison Camp, Alderson
Charges: Smith Act conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 2385).
Arrested: Jul 14, 1941
Sentenced: Dec 7, 1941
Incarcerated: Dec 7, 1941
Released: Jan 14, 1945
Sentence: 16 months federal prison
Judge: Hon. Matthew M. Joyce
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: West Virginia
Security: Low
Federal Reformatory for Women, Alderson
Charges: Seditious conspiracy under the Smith Act
Arrested: Jul 15, 1941
Sentence: 16 months federal imprisonment
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: West Virginia