Angelo Herndon

Angelo Braxton Herndon (May 6, 1913, Wyoming, Ohio – December 9, 1997, Sweet Home, Arkansas) was an African-American labor organizer arrested and convicted for insurrection after attempting to organize black and white industrial workers alike in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia. (The prosecution case rested heavily on Herndon's possession of "communist literature".)

Born into a poor family, Angelo Herndon endured racial discrimination. Herndon received a copy of the Communist Manifesto from a white worker in the Unemployed Councils, a group affiliated with the Communist Party, which led him to get involved with social issues and multiracial organizing.

Herndon went to Atlanta as a labor organizer for the Unemployment Council. His involvement with the Communist Party brought him national prominence.

Herndon campaigned to organize working-class blacks and whites to become politically active. He traveled from Kentucky to Georgia and solicited blacks and whites alike for membership in an integrated Communist Party of Atlanta. In July 1932, Herndon organized a hunger march and demonstration at the courthouse in Atlanta. On July 11, he 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 Communist Party publications were found. Herndon was charged under a Reconstruction era law of insurrection in the state of Georgia.

He was held close to six months in jail and was released on Christmas Eve, after his bail of $7,000 was paid by the International Labor Defense organization. His freedom was short-lived as an all-white jury found Herndon guilty on January 18, 1933. His attorney was Benjamin J. Davis Jr., and the International Juridical Association reviewed the brief by Davis. Herndon was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. On December 7, 1935, Herndon's conviction was overturned and he was released on bail.

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