Otis Hood

Released
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1950s
State:Massachusetts
Support
Communism Communist Party USA
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Biography

Otis Archer Hood was the chairman of the Massachusetts Communist Party and the lead figure among the "Bay State Reds" prosecuted in the McCarthy era. In 1954 he was among Communists arrested for violating Massachusetts's state ban on the Communist Party, winning acquittal, and he was acquitted again after a 1956 state indictment for inciting the overthrow of the government. He was then indicted with his comrades under the federal Smith Act for conspiracy to advocate the government's overthrow — charges that were dismissed in 1957 after the Supreme Court's Yates decision. Hood spent decades as a Communist and labor organizer in Massachusetts; his papers are held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Case

Charges: Conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government, under the Smith Act.
Sentence: No conviction — arrested and prosecuted, but the Smith Act case was dismissed in 1957 without a trial verdict. Verdict as recorded: No — the charges were dismissed in 1957 after the U.S. Supreme Court's Yates v. United States decision; the defendants "won their case." Charges as recorded: Conspiracy to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government, under the Smith Act — a McCarthy-era prosecution of Massachusetts Communist Party leaders (the "Bay State Reds") for their political beliefs and association, brought in 1956.
Convicted: No — charges dismissed

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