Oscar Coover

Oscar Coover (October 7, 1887 - May 3, 1950) was an American union organizer and founding member of the Socialist Workers Party.

Biography

Coover was born in Republic, Missouri and worked as a railroad electrician until 1924.[1] In 1919, Coover met Carl Skoglund who convinced him to join the Communist Party.[2] During the Great Railroad Strike of 1922, Coover was the secretary of the Pullman and Great Western R.R. Employees' Strike Committee.[3] The Communist Party expelled Coover in 1928 because of Trotskyist sympathies.[4] Coover became a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party, along with Vincent Dunne and James P. Cannon.[5]

In 1941, Coover was indicted along with twenty-eight other SWP leaders and charged under the Smith Act.[6] In December 1941, Coover was found guilty of violating the Smith Act and was sentenced to sixteen months in prison.[7] He died in New York, at Lenox Hospital, from spinal encephalitis.[8]

References

  1. ^ "OSCAR COOVER, 62, A LABOR LEADER; Former Organizer for Railway Unions Dies--Long Active in Socialist Workers Party (Published 1950)". The New York Times. 1950-05-04. p. 26. Retrieved 2025-09-06.
  2. ^ Blackstock, Nelson (November 18, 1988). "Oscar Coover, Jr: communist activist, leader for 50 years". The Militant. p. 4.
  3. ^ "Thumbnail Biographies of 18 Convicted". The Militant. December 20, 1941. p. 2.
  4. ^ "Oscar Coover, Socialist Workers Leader, Dies". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 4, 1950. pp. 6C.
  5. ^ Haverty-Stacke, Donna T. (2023). Trotskyists on Trial: Free Speech and Political Persecution Since the Age of FDR. New York: NYU Press. p. 11. ISBN 9781479849628.
  6. ^ Alexander, Robert J. (1991). International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement. Duke University Press. p. 822. ISBN 0822309750.
  7. ^ "18 Are Sentenced in Sedition Trial". The New York Times. December 9, 1941. p. 64.
  8. ^ Preis, Art (May 8, 1950). "Oscar Coover, Pioneer American Trotskyist, Dies" (PDF). The Militant. p. 1.
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