Biography
Homer C. Spence was a tenant farmer and an organizer for the Working Class Union (WCU), an interracial (white, Black, and Native American) socialist tenant-farmer organization in southeastern Oklahoma. The WCU led the Green Corn Rebellion of August 2-3, 1917 — an armed uprising of mostly young, poor farmers who opposed U.S. entry into World War I and the newly enacted Selective Service Act, and who planned to march on Washington to overthrow the federal government and end the war. The rebellion collapsed within two days under pressure from posses and federal officers, and roughly 450 people were detained. Spence — who was already out on bail for obstructing the 1917 draft — was tried for conspiracy and sentenced to ten years in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, one of the heaviest sentences imposed on a Green Corn Rebellion organizer. He was pardoned by President Warren G. Harding in 1921. His mug shot ran in Butterick's Delineator (July 1918) in the magazine's gallery of Huns, Spies and Traitors.
H. C. Spence was from Wewoka, Oklahoma. H. C. Spence was sentenced to ten years in prison and served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from November 1, 1917, to May 5, 1921. Spence had a wife and three small children.
Photo: U.S. Government (credit printed on the original image). Borders cropped from the original scan.
The March1922 official report lists H. C. Spence in List1 of convicted prisoners or parolees. The government entry reports Conspiracy to obstruct recruiting and enlistment. a sentence of November 1, 1917, 10 years at Leavenworth.. Imposed terms, projected term-expiration dates, parole eligibility and intervals on bond are different measures; none is entered as a complete actual custody total. This attributed government entry is retained alongside the independently established individual chronology. [PDF18] The report expressly records May5,1921 release; its earlier March1 eligibility and July19,1924 expiry are different dates. [PDF18]
Government Prosecutions under the Espionage Act, Senate Document159 (March1922), PDF page 18.
