Powers Hapgood

Released
Date of birth:28. 12. 1899
Date of death:04. 02. 1949
Age:49† Deceased
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1920s
State:Pennsylvania
Time Imprisoned:
1 Month 29 Days
Support
Socialism
Powers Hapgood

Biography

Powers Hapgood was a Harvard-educated coal miner, Socialist and labor organizer, who was arrested and jailed numerous times over his life for his activism. During the Somerset County Pennsylvania coal strike Hapgood was reportedly arrested more than a dozen times for leading marches and entering company-owned mining towns to organize or picket. During the Sacco–Vanzetti trial, he was arrested several times for attempting to speak or organize demonstrations including one arrest where he was committed to the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Hapgood later became a prominent CIO organizer and served two months in 1937 for leading a Lewiston–Auburn Maine shoe strike in violation of a court injunction banning strike activities.

Cases

Luzerne County Jail
Charges: Inciting to riot — arrested March 4, 1928, at Pittston, Pennsylvania, with his wife Mary Donovan Hapgood, after authorities prohibited a miners defense meeting during the anthracite strike.
Arrested: Mar 4, 1928
Incarcerated: Mar 4, 1928
Released: Mar 8, 1928
Sentence: Held about four days in the Luzerne County jail at Wilkes-Barre under $5,000 bail each; a March 8 newspaper reported the habeas-corpus request denied and bail fixed at $5,000, and a labor-defense account has them released on that bail after several days — so the release is dated March 8, 1928 as probable rather than certain. Trial was set for April 10, 1928, and by July labor reporting called the result an acquittal.
Convicted: No — acquitted later in 1928; the exact verdict date is unresolved
Institution State: Pennsylvania
Charges: Organizing arrest at Somerset, Pennsylvania, with UMWA organizer Arthur Taylor during the 1922-23 Somerset County coal strike — the one of his reportedly more-than-a-dozen Somerset arrests reconstructable to a date.
Arrested: Apr 15, 1922
Released: April 1922
Sentence: In custody at Somerset two days before the April 17, 1922 Boswell organizing action, so free again by April 17 — at most about two days held, most likely a brief detention or one overnight stay. The remaining Somerset arrests await the UMWA District 2 telegrams (IUP Box 30, Folder 11).
Convicted: Unresolved — no charge wording or disposition survives in the accessible record
Charges: Loitering and sauntering while picketing the Massachusetts State House with the Sacco-Vanzetti death watch, August 10, 1927 — arrested alongside Dorothy Parker, John Dos Passos, and Catharine Sargent Huntington.
Arrested: Aug 10, 1927
Released: August 1927
Sentence: Released the same day or overnight at most; bail was being arranged for the arrested demonstrators and no evidence shows a longer hold.
Convicted: Unresolved — the cases proceeded as test-case appeals rather than jail sentences
Charges: Speaking without a permit — arrested August 14, 1927, attempting to address a crowd of two to three thousand on Boston Common about the impending Sacco-Vanzetti executions after officials revoked the meeting permission.
Arrested: Aug 14, 1927
Released: August 1927
Sentence: Initially held under $200 bail and probably released August 14 or 15; sentenced August 16 to six months for speaking without a permit and immediately appealed under $1,000 bail, so the custodial term was never served — actual lockup probably under one day.
Convicted: Convicted August 16, 1927 (Judge Parmenter) — sentenced to six months, never served; immediately appealed
Charges: Arrested in the final death-watch demonstrations on the night of the Sacco-Vanzetti executions, August 22-23, 1927, then removed from his cell and committed to the Boston Psychopathic Hospital for observation.
Arrested: Aug 22, 1927
Released: August 1927
Sentence: Committed to the hospital by August 24 and released by August 26 — probably August 24 or 25; roughly one to three days of detention and hospitalization in all.
Convicted: Unresolved — his later lawsuit alleged the psychiatric commitment was improper
Charges: A fourth Boston arrest during the August 1927 Sacco-Vanzetti campaign — wire services reported by August 26 that he had been arrested four times, but the fourth Boston arrest is not individually dated in the accessible record.
Arrested: August 1927
Sentence: Recorded as an additional documented arrest with the exact date and duration unresolved, rather than combined with the three dated August 1927 episodes.
Convicted: Unresolved
Charges: Attempted assault — charged by deputies during the Maxwell Colliery dispute at Ashley, Pennsylvania, in the Glen Alden coal strike, around 1931.
Arrested: 1931
Sentence: Placed in the county jail under $1,000 bail; the exact admission and release dates have not surfaced.
Convicted: Unresolved
Charges: Contempt of court — convicted May 6, 1937, with other CIO organizers for continuing the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine shoe strike in violation of a court injunction banning strike activity.
Arrested: May 6, 1937
Incarcerated: May 6, 1937
Released: July 1937
Sentence: Sentenced to six months; actually spent 58 days jailed before release on bail — placing the probable release around July 2-3, 1937, entered at month precision pending the exact discharge record — and the contempt ruling was later overturned. His longest documented imprisonment.
Convicted: Convicted of contempt May 6, 1937; the ruling was subsequently overturned

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