Smash the power of the Ku Klux Klan
By: Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa
Publisher: Committee for the Defense of Civil Rights in Tampa
Published: 1936
Place of publication: New York, N.Y.
Language: eng
Subjects: Murder; Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
Notes: Cover title.

On November 30, 1935 Joseph Shoemaker and five other party members of the Modern Democrats political organization were assisting cigar factory workers in Tampa, Florida. They were seized by Tampa police after the police entered their meeting place without a warrant. After a brief interrogation, the men were released. Three of them, including Shoemaker, were abducted and subsequently beaten by a gang waiting in cars outside the police station. Shoemaker died from his beating 9 days later in a Tampa hospital. The police and others involved in the kidnappings were reported to be members of the Ku Klux Klan.