Angelo Herndon

Angelo Herndon (b. May 6, 1913 in Wyoming, Ohio). Angelo Herndon was an African American communist organizer arrested and convicted for insurrection in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Herndon was born into a poor family, he endured racial discrimination. Herndon went to Atlanta as a labor organizer for the Unemployment Council, a group affiliated with the Communist Party. It was through the council and a white worker who gave him the Communist Manifesto that would eventually get him involved with social issues and even into prison. It was his involvement with the communist party that gave him national prominence. Herndon was an avid believer in the doctrine and the foundations of communism.

Political activism

He took this doctrine on the road and began a campaign to try to solicit membership across the county. He was sent from Kentucky to Georgia as a delegate to help organize the party and to solicit membership. In July, 1932 Herndon organized a hunger march and demostration at the courthouse in Atlanta. On July 11, Herndon checked on his mail at the Post Office and was arrested by two Atlanta detectives. A few days later his hotel room was searched and political material about the communist party were found. Thereafter, he was charged under a Reconstruction era law of insurrection in the state of Georgia.

Herndon was held close to six months in jail and was released on Christman Eve after his bail of $7,000 was paid by the International Labor Defense organization.[1] This freedom was short lived as an all white jury found Herndon guilty. He was sentenced to 18-20 years in prison.

He served two years of his sentence and was released in 1934. Upon his release from prison Herndon was greeted as a hero by a crowd of 6,000 well-wishers at Pennsylvania Station. Several leading Communist Party officials welcomed him to New York. His case was appealed and Herndon was convicted for the second time by the Supreme Court of Georgia. It was not until 1937 that the decision was finally overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

External links

• Angelo Herndon comes back from Georgia
• Black Red Freed, Time, May 03, 1937
• Indict the social system! by Angelo Herndon
• Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and the Case of Angelo Herndon
• The Angelo Herndon Indictment
• Herndon, Angelo. Let Me Live. Random House; New York 1937.