Johnson, Arnold Samuel, 1904-1989.

Arnold Samuel Johnson was a Communist Party, USA official. As a young man, Johnson was drawn to Christian Socialist philosophy, and in 1932 received a B.A. in Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. In 1929 and 1930 Johnson helped to organized Sherwood Eddy's "American Seminar in Europe", first visited the Soviet Union, and in 1931 was involved in the National Miners' Union struggle in Harlan, Kentucky, where, as a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union he was arrested on criminal syndicalism charges.

In 1932 he joined the Conference for Progessive Labor Action and in 1933 he was appointed Ohio organizer of its Unemployed League and later that year was elected its national secretary. Also in 1933, Johnson met and married Aurelia Ricci. Johnson supported the 1936 merger of the Unemployed League with the Communist-organized Unemployed Councils to form the Workers Alliance and became its national secretary and joined the Communist Party. From 1940 to 1947 he was state chairman of the Ohio Communist Party.

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