06/14/2025
Angelo Herndon: A Fighter for Justice
Angelo Herndon was at the center of one of the most talked-about court cases in the 1930s. In 1932, at just 19 years old, he was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, for trying to organize a peaceful protest to help unemployed workers. He was charged under a very old law meant for slave rebellions. His case, along with the famous Scottsboro case, helped show the unfairness of the legal system in the South, especially toward Black people. It also introduced many African Americans to the anti-racist message of the Communist Party.
Herndon was born on May 6, 1913, in Wyoming, Ohio, near Cincinnati. As a teen, he moved around looking for work, eventually ending up in Birmingham, Alabama. There, in 1930, he learned about the Communist Party. He liked that they believed in unity between Black and white people, so he joined and worked with the Unemployed Council. In 1931, he helped support the campaign to free the Scottsboro Boys—nine Black teenagers wrongly accused of a crime.
Herndon’s own trial started in January 1933. A young Black lawyer named Benjamin Davis, Jr. defended him. Davis argued that the law used to charge Herndon was unfair and that Black people were being unfairly kept off the jury. He also called out the racism shown by the judge and lawyers. Still, Herndon was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years on a prison chain gang. But thanks to the International Labor Defense group, protests and legal appeals continued. In 1937, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction, and Herndon was freed.
After that, Herndon stayed active for a while in the Communist Party and civil rights work. In 1937, he became the national leader of the Young Communist League. In the early 1940s, he worked with writer Ralph Ellison to edit a magazine called Negro Quarterly, though it didn’t last long. By the mid-1940s, Herndon moved away from politics and lived a quiet life. He worked as a salesman somewhere in the Midwest until he passed away.
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