Episode Details

Angelo Herndon was a Black coal miner turned Communist activist who was repeatedly “arrested, convicted of vagrancy, and incarcerated” for his efforts to educate and mobilize workers. In 1932, he helped organize an interracial protest against a county decision to cut off relief for the poor. But it wasn’t simply the protest that led to his chain-gang sentence — it was Herndon’s possession and distribution of Communist literature, which authorities used to charge him with inciting insurrection.

Herndon’s prosecution, and the wrongful conviction that followed, ultimately gave rise to Herndon v. Lowry — one of the most important civil-rights and free-speech cases of the twentieth century.

Herndon is also the subject of a recent book: Brad Snyder’s You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads.

Joining us this episode of the Nation Podcast to discuss his review of Snyder’s book is Randall Kennedy, professor at Harvard Law School and author of Say It Loud: On Race, Law, History and Culture. You can find Randall’s review in our December issue of the Nation.