Charles Andrew Orr was an American economist and socialist. He and his wife, Lois Orr

Lois Orr

Lois Orr , also known as Louise Cusick, Lois Cusick and Lois Curter, born in the Jewish hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, lived in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, where she was a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification female militia...

, lived in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 during the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, where they supported the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM

Poum

Poum is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The town of Poum is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore....

).
They survived the Stalinist attack on the POUM in June 1937, after the fighting of the Barcelona May Days

Barcelona May Days

Barcelona May Days were a period of civil violence in Catalonia, between May 3 and May 8, 1937, when factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged each other in street battles in the city of Barcelona.Clashes began when units of the Assault Guard – under the...

.
They were arrested on 17 June, the day after Andrés Nin

Andrés Nin

Andreu Nin i Pérez was a Spanish Communist revolutionary.- Early life :...

 and the POUM executive were arrested, but were released on 1 July and placed by the US consul, Mahlon Perkins

Mahlon Perkins

Mahlon Fay Perkins was a United States diplomat. After serving in China for many years, he was consul-general in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War. It was his intervention which saved the lives of Charles Orr and Lois Orr after they had been arrested in the Stalinist crackdown on the...

, on a ship bound for Marseilles on 3 July.
They were in Mexico in 1940 when Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

was murdered.

Collections of his papers are held at the Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University and Stanford University.