Parker Sage
Eugene John Parker Sage (March 31, 1896 - June 01, 1978) of Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan was a diemaker and a defendant in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944. In 1935 he organized a secret organization called the Black Legion which was similar to the Ku Klux Klan. It had a military structure with some estimating the organization having 25,000 members. It was organized the Midwestern states and like Klan organizations at the time targeted Communists, Blacks and “anti-social” elements in society.
In 1938 he was one of the founders of the National Workers' League in Detroit and became the group's treasure. [1] However investigators considered him the "executive head" of the organization.[2]
On April 16, 1942, Parker Sage, Garland Alderman, and Virgil Chandler were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in connection to the Sojourner Truth public housing riot in Detroit.[3] They were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot. The Justice Department later saw there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them.
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