Angelo Herndon was a teenager who was deeply concerned about racial inequalities and class conflict on Georgia’s streets until his arrest in July 1932. His communist sympathies drove him to fight for workers’ economic rights, but it was his attempt to organize peaceful protests in Atlanta to demand unemployment benefits that drew the attention of federal authorities.
On charges of inciting a rebellion, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years on a Georgia chain gang. According to Georgia Encyclopedia, his five-year legal battle for his freedom in the courts exposed flaws and gross injustice in Georgia’s legal system.
Because Atlanta was in economic turmoil in the 1920s, his actions were deemed a federal threat. On June 30, 1932, approximately 1,000 laid-off workers stormed the Fulton County Courthouse to demand the reinstatement of their relief payments, which had been temporarily suspended.
This compelled federal officials to make an emergency appropriation of $6000 to deal with the payments in order to avoid labor unrest. Herndon’s attempt to fan the flames was interpreted as an attempt to cause social unrest. Federal authorities initially assigned spies to monitor local radicals who were said to be planning a series of protests. Herndon was apprehended by police after a two-week surveillance of his movements. When he went to the post office to get his mail, he was picked up.
Herndon was 19 years old when he moved from Ohio to Kentucky in search of work in the mines. When circumstances did not favor him, he relocated to Alabama, where he was exposed to communist teachings in the 1930s. He was swayed by communist campaigns for labor reform and social integration. He was arrested several times by police for his Communist Party activities, forcing him to travel to Atlanta in 1931.
When he arrived in Atlanta, he immediately began organizing the workers. When the authorities learned of this, they arrested him on charges of attempting to fuel an insurgency. Benjamin J. Davis Jr. and John H. Geer, two young Atlanta Black attorneys, represented him. They questioned the charges’ constitutionality as well as the legality of an all-white jury.
Herndon was sentenced on January 18, 1933, just three days after his trial began. Instead of the death penalty, the jury recommended that he be sentenced to 20 years in prison. His legal team filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court in May 1934, but the decision was upheld. Overall, Herndon’s conviction was overturned by the United States Supreme Court after a four-year appeals process. On April 26, 1937, he was released from prison in a narrow victory that effectively ended Georgia’s insurgency statute.
While in prison, Herndon wrote his autobiography “Let Me Live”, which historians believe raised awareness of his plight.