Angelo Herndon (1913 - 1997)

Tue May 06, 1913

Image: Angelo Herndon, imprisoned and in chains

Angelo Herndon, born on this day in 1913, was a black labor organizer arrested and convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black and white industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia. The prosecution case rested heavily on Herndon's possession of "communist literature", which police found in his hotel room.

Herndon was defended by the International Labor Defense, the legal arm of the Communist Party. Over a five-year period, Herndon's case twice reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that Georgia's insurrection law was unconstitutional, as it violated First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly.

Herndon became nationally prominent because of his case and his defense attorney, Benjamin Davis, was radicalized because of it. He is also remembered for his essay entitled "You Cannot Kill the Working Class". By the end of the 1940s, he left the Communist Party and moved to the Midwest, living there in peace.

"You may succeed in killing one, two, even a score of working-class organizers. But you cannot kill the working class."

- Angelo Herndon

• Date: 1913-05-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org