Even with its persistent, progressive labor movement–because of it–Tampa, with its mayor named after Robert E. Lee, was ruled through an uninterrupted campaign of terror waged by a well-connected and entrenched Klan, the Tampa police department. On November 30, 1935, Tampa police arrested three Socialist Party members and union organizers without a warrant in a raid on their meeting. Joseph Shoemaker, E.F. Pulnot and S.D. Rogers were taken to police headquarters for ‘questioning.’ The Klan had previously issued a warning for Shoemaker to leave town. The three were released to a waiting mob outside who kidnapped and tortured them, including burning and pouring boiling tar on them. Shoemaker died nine days later to huge outcry from unions and progressives. In December, six Tampa police officers and one fireman were arrested for being members of a “ruffian band.” Later the Sheriff was also indicted by a Gran Jury. However, all ten defendants would later be acquitted the following year. A valuable summary of the people and events below.

‘Facts on Tampa’ from New Militant. Vol. 2 No. 14. April 11, 1936.

The Background

Tampa is famous for cigars, gambling and flogging. Labor in the cigar factories and in the surrounding citrus groves is mercilessly exploited. Unemployment is widespread. Relief is pitiful. In Tampa, the unrestrained gambling racket is worth a million dollars a month. As in the rest of Florida, politicians fight each other for the privilege of sharing in the booty. Anyone who tries to buck this combination of capitalists, racketeers and politicians, either by organizing workers–employed or unemployed, or by forming opposition political groups, is branded as a “red,” kidnapped, flogged and sometimes murdered. The official flogging agency for the combination is the Ku Klux Klan, a secret band of cowardly, sadistic degenerates unsurpassed by anything Hitler has yet produced. The police and most government officials, high and low, are directly connected with the Klan. Nobody knows how many floggings and murders have taken place. They occur regularly. Their perpetrators have never been punished by law because in Florida the Ku Klux Klan is the law.

The Crime

On the night of Nov. 30, 1935, the constitution-drafting committee of the Modern Democrats met in a private home in Tampa. In spite of any threats, they were going ahead with their plans for a progressive party opposed to the local swindlers. Joseph A. Shoemaker, formerly a member of the Socialist Party, was chairman. Others present were: Eugene F. Poulnot, former president of the Pressmen’s Union, A. F. of L, Chairman of the Florida Workers’ Alliance and a member of the Socialist Party; Sam D. Rogers, a member of the Socialist Party and an officer of the Florida Workers Alliance; Walter Roush and Charles E. Jensen, chairman and secretary, respectively, of the Socialist Party of Florida, and John A. McCaskill, a city fireman. Suddenly, without warning and without warrants, seven policemen entered the home, confiscated all papers and arrested the six men present. They were taken to the police station, questioned for “communist” activities and “released” one by one. Roush and Jensen were permitted to re- turn to their homes. McCaskill turned out to be a stool-pigeon. Shoemaker, Poulnot and Rogers were “released” by the police into waiting cars in front of the police station. They were driven to a lonely spot 14 miles outside of Tampa. There, they were stripped, flogged with chains and whips and covered with hot tar. Shoemaker was tortured and his right leg was held over a fire. After nine lingering days, during which time his leg developed gangrene and was amputated. Shoemaker died. The others recovered.

The Protests

When the news leaked out, a roar of protest descended upon Florida–“where life at its best costs less.” Thousands of organizations and individuals expressed their horror to the Governor and to Tampa officials. Committees for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa were organized in New York, with Norman Thomas as chairman, and in Tampa, with the Rev. Walter Mitcalf, pastor of the First Congregational Church, as chairman. Protest meetings were held in Tampa at one of which Norman Thomas addressed 3,000 enraged workers and many thousands more over the radio. President William Green announced that the American Federation of Labor convention would be with- drawn from Tampa unless those guilty were properly punished. It seemed impossible to ignore this act of terrorism as scores of similar acts before it had been ignored. State and county officials were forced to act.

The Indictments

After three weeks of investigating, the arrests began. Within two and one-half months, a series of indictments were returned against eleven policemen and members of the Ku Klux Klan. The indictments were for second degree murder, an assault with the intent to murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and accessory after the fact. The information filed on the murder indictment declares that the defendants “with force and arms did unlawfully and by an act imminently dangerous to Joseph Shoe- maker and evidencing depraved minds, regardless of human life but without premeditated design to effect the death of Joseph Shoemaker, an assault did make in and upon the body and limbs of Joseph Shoemaker, with deadly weapons, to whit, whips, straps and tar, a further description of all of which is to the Solicitor unknown and in furtherance of said assault they with the said whips, straps and tar had and held in their hands, did then and there strike, beat, bruise, wound and ill-treat him, from which said wounds the said Joseph Shoemaker did languish and on the 9th day of December, A. D. 1935, did die.”

The Descendants

Those indicted on the murder and kidnapping charges are: Police Sergeant C.A. “Smitty” Brown, leader of the raid and one of the best pistol shots in the country; Patrolmen Sam E. Crosby, John E. Bridges and F.W. Switzer, the latter also under indictment for the kidnapping of Robert M. Cargell, a St. Petersburg lawyer; C.W. Carlisle, former employe of the city tax department; Robert Chappell, former employe of the city water department; A.F. Gillian, Ed Spivey and James Dean, Orlando Klansmen and special policemen during the Tampa primary election. Chief of Police R.G. Tittsworth and Manuel Menendez, police stenographer, were indicted as accessories after the fact.

The Attorneys

By direction of Governor Dave Sholtz, the prosecution is being conducted by State Attorney J. Rex Farrior, Assistant State Attorney R.M. Huntley and County Solicitor C. Jay Hardee, the latter said to be tied in with the gambling ring. The defendants are represented by Pat Whitaker, chief counsel, his brother Tom Whitaker, Charles F. Blake and L.E. Womack, all intimately associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

The Judge

Judge Raleigh Petteway of Hillsborough County disqualified himself as trial judge on March 17, on motion of the defense, because he is a candidate for Governor. Sholtz assigned Judge Robert T. Dewell of Polk County in his place.

The Witnesses

Nearly 100 witnesses will be called by both sides. They include Mayor Robert E. Lee Chancey of Tampa and other state and county officials. Two important witnesses for the state “committed suicide” under mysterious circumstances before the trial began. They are Robert P. Fariss, to whom a receipt was issued for a P.O. Box used by the Ku Klux Klan, who died of monoxide poisoning in his garage, and Police Sergeant H. Carl Tompkins, on desk duty the night of the crime, who “jumped” from the third floor window of a Tampa hospital.

The Present Trial

The state has decided to try first the cases against “Smitty” Brown, C.W. Carlisle and John P. Bridges for kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap Eugene Poulnot. The trial began on March 24 after Judge Petteway had denied defense motions for a four month delay and for a change of venue.

The Need for Continued Support

The progress already made in running down the perpetrators of this deed is no guarantee against a whitewash. The fight against the Ku Klux Klan and the capitalist-racketeer-politician combination in Florida must be carried to a successful conclusion before any workingman in the country can call himself free. Protests and demands for action from individuals, unions and other organizations should be sent to Governor Dave Sholtz, Mayor R.E.L. Chancey and State Attorney J. Rex Farrior. Financial contributions to carry on the fight should be sent to Norman Thomas, chairman, or Mary Fox, Treasurer, National Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa, Room 1106, 112 East 19th Street, New York City.

The New Militant was the weekly paper of the Workers Party of the United States and replaced The Militant in 1934, The Militant was a weekly newspaper begun by supporters of the International Left Opposition recently expelled from the Communist Party in 1928 and published in New York City. Led by James P Cannon, Max Schacthman, Martin Abern, and others, the new organization called itself the Communist League of America (Opposition) and saw itself as an outside faction of both the Communist Party and the Comintern. After 1933, the group dropped ‘Opposition’ and advocated a new party and International. When the CLA fused with AJ Muste’s American Workers Party in late 1934, the paper became the New Militant as the organ of the newly formed Workers Party of the United States.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1936/apr-11-1936.pdf