Biography
Thomas R. Sullivan, a Socialist and Christian Scientist from New York, New York, was sentenced to two years in prison for obstructing the draft. He served in Leavenworth Penitentiary from July 14, 1919, to Februaiy 19, 1921. According to FBI reports, Sullivan was arrested at the Bridgman, Michigan, Workers Party convention in 1922. He remained active in radical labor activities and became an organizer for the Harlem Trade Union Council and the United Office and Professional Workers of America, Congress of Industrial Organizations. After prison Sullivan helped found the American Communist Party. He was continuously investigated by the FBI between 1949 and 1972 as a Communist. The bureau noted his participation in demonstrations against the Vietnam War during the 1960s and continued to classify him as "potentially dangerous" to the interests of the government in 1972, when he was at the advanced age of eighty-one.
