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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Snyder, Brad, 1972- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2025]
Edition:First edition.
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Summary:"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." --
Physical Description:xv, 318 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index,
ISBN:9781324036548
Author Notes: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.