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Submitted by Theodore Poston
ANCTIJO RERVDON COMES B:.OK FROM GEORGIA
References:
Personal Interview(August 7, 1934)
Memory refreshed from Amsterdam News files
He was tired. Very tired and very sick. His sagging
muscles, pallid face, drooping shoulders and nervous fingers pro-
claimed it. And as the train headed for Pennsylvania Station where
6,000 people waited impatiently to hail him, Angelo Herndon turned
wearily to the reporter who had met him at Manhattan Transfer.
"ch„ the Amsterdam News? I remember it. It was one
of the five papers which came to me regularly at Fulton Tower prison,
but which they never let me read. The rally Worker, Amsterdam News,
New York Times, Atlanta World and Wall Street Journal." He smiled
slowly. "No, they wouldn't let in. read even the Wall Street Journal.
They poured ink on it."
"How was prison?" the reporter asked. "How did they
Angelo Herndon --2
treat you?"
"It was hell." he 'answered simply and allrugged his
thin shoulders. After a pause he continued:
"They tortured ne. Oh, th(7y tried to be clever about
it. They insisted they were giving me 'special attention,' but they
did things to me under that pretense. They cooked up that lie that
I tried to escape. They searched my cell twice for steel saws. They
found some rusty bits of tin which had been in tore for years, and
used this as an excuse to move me into a damp cell where water dripped
from the ceiling.
"I pointed to the water and told them I was sick. (He
looks tubercular) They said:IWe don't give a dann if you drown. and
left me there. Later they put me in the death cell. They put special
guards near my door. They taunted me."
"Didn't they give you regular treatment?" the reporter
asked, "There was a letter in the Nation from a young white woman who
seid she visited you and found you were treated all right. She said
you looked fine."
"Regular treatment?" he smiled again, wearily, fleetingly.
"They took my medicine away from me."
Angelo Herndon --3
He looked down at his thin bloodless fingers. "Do I
look fine?
"1 remember that young woman. They let her in to see
me. I wasn't allowed any other visitors, except my lawyers. I think
she was fine. She was a Socialist though.(Herndon is a Communist) As
she was leaving she saidrowe are so far apart.'"
Was there a demonstration when he left FUlton Tower
prison? What did the other prisoners and guards say? Were they
surprised?
"The authorities were dumbfounded. They never expected
that we could raise the money. That's why they made the bail $15,000.
The boys were surprised too. They were glad to see me go. They wished
me good luck. The turnkey said: 'Hope to see you back soam--for good.,"
"We left quietly. There had been some talk about a
lynching. They are conducting a campaign throughout the state against
Communists. They didn't bother us though."
"If the United States Stpreme Court reverses your
conviction," the reporter asked, "and you are freed at a later trial,
will you continue to work in the South?"
"Why not?"
Angelo Herndon... -4
"Won't the publicity attendant juur case make it
izpossible for you to continue there? Won't it b
00 dangerous?"
The wry smile again. "Its dangerous to be a worker
anywhere. —If you're trying to better your ccdition."
The train was pulling into Pennsylvania Station. Bob
lanai', grizzled Co;:zmulist leaCxr, wa2 the first to reach Herndon.
Awkwardly he threw his arms about the youth's frail shoulders and
kissed Lin. James Ford, regro candidate for the Vice Presidency of
the United States in 102, was second. He too kissed Herndon clumsily.
Ruby Bates, one-time accuser but later ch!,ef defense witness in the
Scottsboro ease, was next. She bugged him and held her oheek to his.
Milton, Angelo's young brother, stood a little to the
side. The two boys gazed quietly at each other. Silently they thodia
hands and eMbraced. On the upper level, 0,0000 persons, mainly white,
strained against the police lines and yelled for their hero.
Angelo Herndon had come back from Georgia,