Angelo Herndon was a labor and Communist Party organizer who was convicted and sentenced to twenty years hard labor on charges of attempting to incite insurrection in Georgia in 1932. He had led a demonstration of unemployed African Americans and...
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Angelo Herndon was a labor and Communist Party organizer who was convicted and sentenced to twenty years hard labor on charges of attempting to incite insurrection in Georgia in 1932. He had led a demonstration of unemployed African Americans and whites to protest cuts in relief rations, and was later arrested for possessing Communist literature and charged with insurrection. The latter charge was based on an 1861 anti-slavery insurrection law. Herndon's case was a cause celebre among leftist and civil rights circles. He was released from prison before serving the full term, through the efforts of these organizations, particularly the International Labor Defense. The Angelo Herndon collection consist of correspondence, several legal briefs from the Supreme Court of Georgia, a printed article concerning the legal case, and miscellaneous papers.
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