Angelo Herndon Charged Under 1861 Slave Insurrection Law for Organizing Workers

Angelo Herndon, a 19-year-old Black Communist organizer, led a 1,000-person integrated march on Atlanta's Fulton County relief office in July 1932 protesting Depression-era cuts. He was arrested and charged under an 1861 Georgia slave insurrection statute — a law explicitly designed to suppress enslaved resistance. Herndon was convicted and sentenced to 18–20 years on a chain gang. The ACLU and ILD appealed. In Herndon v. Lowry (1937), the Supreme Court reversed his conviction 5–4 as a violation of free speech. Herndon served five years before his release.