The Loretta Starvus Stack collection consists of letters, cards and drawings sent by Smith Act defendant, Loretta Stack, to her husband, Walter Stack, and children, as well as those she received from family and friends while she was detained in the Los Angeles County Jail from August to December of 1951, and during her trial in Los Angeles in 1952 (Yates, et. al v. United States Government). Stack was a labor activist and Communist Party member. She was one of fifteen California working class leaders indicted under the Smith Act for conspiring to teach and advocate for the violent overthrow of the United States Government and organizing the Communist Party as a vehicle for such teachings. Stack's eventual conviction was overturned when the United States Supreme Court invalidated the Smith Act in 1957.