Help Save People's World The economic crisis has hit People's World hard. We need the support of all our friends and readers to continue publishing. Communists like my uncle were sent to prison because they fought for democracy January 15, 2021 12:39 PM CDT By Roberta Wood LeRoy Wood, left, being led away by federal agents after his Smith Act conviction for conspiring to teach or advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government. | Courtesy of Roberta Wood My late uncle, LeRoy H. Wood, spent years in a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa., for what he did in Washington, D.C. Roy was convicted of “conspiring to teach the advocacy of the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence.” No, Uncle Roy was not a billionaire who incited a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol armed with Molotov cocktails. He did not shut down a session of Congress as it completed the final stages of an electoral process. He did not plot the assassination of political leaders.