News of the murder in jail of T.E. Barlow, 40-year-old Communist Party activist, while organizing the unemployed in Fort Worth, Texas.

‘Leader of Texas Unemployed Is Killed In Jail’ from Southern Worker. Vol. 3 No. 6. September 20, 1933.

Fort Worth, Tex.—Comrade T.E. Barlow, organizer of the Unemployed Council and candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas during the 1932 elections, died on Sept. 2 at the Tarrant County Jail. All indications point to a foul murder of this leader of the workers, by jailers or by hired thugs of the ruling class.

Barlow, along with N.H. Macomb and E.E. Hardy, was arrested by police after a mass meeting of unemployed in East Bluff to protest the cutting off of all relief in the city. Some time later Barlow was moved from the city to the county jail, and an hour after he got there he was dead.

Led Jobless Workers

Under the leadership of Comrade Barlow, the local Unemployed Council has grown from a tiny group into an organization of nearly 2,000 active members. The local Councils have been successful in getting relief for starving workers, and in stopping evictions.

The Ft. Worth authorities have already begun their white-washing of the murder of Barlow. The prison authorities say that Barlow was hurt in a fight with his cell-mate on Sept. 1 and that the cell-mate was released from jail almost immediately after the fight, and is not now to be found. Strange coincidence! Workers who viewed the body of our comrade report innumerable bruises, cuts and contusions, showing violent and prolonged mishandling by very strong persons.

The militant workers of Ft. Worth and of all Texas will not let this crime against their class go unchallenged. They will do their best to root out and accuse the murderers of Comrade Barlow. They are preparing a mass funeral, at which appeals will be made for thousands of new members to step in the ranks and close the gap left by Comrade Barlow’s death. Out of the fury of the workers at this murder, will grow a movement the strength of which the ruling class never dreamed.

‘3,000 Hit Murder of Jobless Leader’ from the Daily Worker. Vol. 10 No. 216. September 8, 1933.

Police Terror Holds Sway; Search on for Militant Workers

FORT WORTH, Tex. Three thousand workers demonstrated here Wednesday in protest against the brutal police murder of T. E. Barlow, district organizer of the Communist Party. Despite the terrorization of the county and city police, who attempted to smash the meeting with tear-gas bombs, the workers defended the speakers and refused to disperse.

D. Lacey of the Unemployed Councils, Alice Wilson of the International Labor Defense and Ben Lauderdale of the Communist Party addressed the crowd. The meeting demanded that the body of Barlow be held for a complete investigation and accused the police of murder. The death penalty for all police involved in the case was demanded. The local papers state that 5,000 workers have visited the funeral parlor to view the body.

Police are conducting a savage hunt for the leading members of the Communist Party and other workers’ organization. Workers are stopped and questioned and intimidated continually. A flood of protests has been called for to combat this reign of terror and to demand that the murderers of Barlow be punished.

Begun in August, 1930, Southern Worker was a semi-legal regional newspaper of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) primarily aimed at building the Party in the South among Black workers and farmers. Pseudonyms of editors and writers, false publication places, illegal paper drops, and clandestine meetings were a necessary hallmark of the Southern Worker’s life. The paper extensively covered the campaign against lynching and southern unionization efforts. Originally a weekly, it went to a monthly in 1934 and ceased publishing in 1937. Editors included Solomon Auerbach (under the name “Jim Allen”), Harry Wicks, and Elizabeth Lawson.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/southernworker/v3n06-sep-20-1933-sw.pdf