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You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

The story of a young, Black Communist Party organizer and the landmark case that made him a civil rights hero.

In 1932, eighteen-year-old Black Communist Party organizer Angelo Herndon was arrested, had his rooms illegally searched, and his radical literature seized. He was charged with attempting to incite insurrection—a crime punishable by death. You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads chronicles Herndon’s five-year quest for freedom during a time when Blacks, white liberals, and the radical left joined forces to define the nation’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties.

Herndon’s champions included the young, Black Harvard Law School–educated attorney Benjamin J. Davis Jr.; the future historian C. Vann Woodward, who joined the interracial Herndon defense committee; the white-shoe New York lawyer Whitney North Seymour, who argued Herndon’s appeals; and literary friends Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. With their support, Herndon reinvented himself as one of the most famous Black men in America and inspired a constitutional right to protest.

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You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

The story of a young, Black Communist Party organizer and the landmark case that made him a civil rights hero.

In 1932, eighteen-year-old Black Communist Party organizer Angelo Herndon was arrested, had his rooms illegally searched, and his radical literature seized. He was charged with attempting to incite insurrection—a crime punishable by death. You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads chronicles Herndon’s five-year quest for freedom during a time when Blacks, white liberals, and the radical left joined forces to define the nation’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties.

Herndon’s champions included the young, Black Harvard Law School–educated attorney Benjamin J. Davis Jr.; the future historian C. Vann Woodward, who joined the interracial Herndon defense committee; the white-shoe New York lawyer Whitney North Seymour, who argued Herndon’s appeals; and literary friends Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. With their support, Herndon reinvented himself as one of the most famous Black men in America and inspired a constitutional right to protest.

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You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

by Brad Snyder
You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

by Brad Snyder

Overview

The story of a young, Black Communist Party organizer and the landmark case that made him a civil rights hero.

In 1932, eighteen-year-old Black Communist Party organizer Angelo Herndon was arrested, had his rooms illegally searched, and his radical literature seized. He was charged with attempting to incite insurrection—a crime punishable by death. You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads chronicles Herndon’s five-year quest for freedom during a time when Blacks, white liberals, and the radical left joined forces to define the nation’s commitment to civil rights and civil liberties.

Herndon’s champions included the young, Black Harvard Law School–educated attorney Benjamin J. Davis Jr.; the future historian C. Vann Woodward, who joined the interracial Herndon defense committee; the white-shoe New York lawyer Whitney North Seymour, who argued Herndon’s appeals; and literary friends Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. With their support, Herndon reinvented himself as one of the most famous Black men in America and inspired a constitutional right to protest.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781324036555
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 02/04/2025
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 336

About the Author

Brad Snyder, author of Democratic Justice, is a professor of constitutional law and twentieth-century American legal history at Georgetown Law. In addition to his legal scholarship, he has written for Politico, Slate, and the Washington Post. He lives in Washington, DC.
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