The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-23
Mrs. MONTGOMERY
HITS CHAIN GANG
Herndon Verdict Hits
at Negro People

MONTGOMERY, Ala, Jan. %.
Hearing will take place today on
the writ of habeas corpus taken out
by the International Labor Defense
attorneys in the fight TO effect the
release of Roy Wright, one of the
Scottsboro boys, who has been held
In jail for the past Is months with
out conviction.
ATLANTA, Ca, Jan. %. -
Mrs. Montgomery, mother of
Olin Montgomery, one of the 9
innocent Scottsboro Negro lads
facing legal lynching in Ala
bama, joined with hundreds of
white and Negro workers to-
day in denouncing the vicious
class verdict of the Fulton County
Superior Court sentencing Angelo
Herndon, 19-year old Negro organizer
OF the unemployed, to 10 to 20 years
on Georgia's chain gangs.
Mrs. Montgomery was among the
hundreds of white and Negro workers
who packed the court house during
the three days Of the dramatic trial
in militant solidarity with the young
working class leader. Commenting
on Judge Wyatt's open collision with
the prosecution in converting the
trial of Herndon into an attack on
the Communist Party and it's fight
for full equality for the Negro people
and Self-determination for the BLACK
Belt, Mrs. Montgomery declared on
the second day of the trial:
"a capitalist judge could be de-
pended on to do just what Wyatt
has done in lying to the defense
attorneys. Yesterday he promised
that no argument ON Communism
would be admitted as evidence. To-
day he encourages every a,tsek on
the Communist Party"
Prepare Drive and Appeal.
The Southern District of the IN
ternational Labor Defense announced
today that 1t will conduct vigorous
mass and legal fight against the
chain gang verdict, which Is practi-
cally a death sentence for the young
Negro revolutionary leader and
| move to crush the rising struggles of
the unemployed white and Negro
| workers and to illegalize the Com
munist Party in Georgia The bril-
liant defense conducted by the de-
Tense counsel, Ben Davis, Jr., and
John H. Gear, prominent Negro at
torneys of Atlanta, engaged by the I.
L. D., has laid the basis for an ap-
peal to the U. S. Supreme Court, the
two defense attorneys forcing Fulton
County officials to admit that Ne
groes have been Systematically ex-
cluded from Petit and Grand Juries
during the past 80 years. Already,
as result of the vigorous fight con-
| Quoted by the I. L. D. and it's at
torneys. two Negroes were called for
jury duty several weeks ago.
n@a Atlanta Six Next
Attorneys Davis and Gear will also
| defend the Atlanta Six who will be
| tried shortly under the same 1851
slave code dug up by the State of
| Georgia for its savage offensive
against the working class and the
growing unity of Negro and white
workers and poor farmers in the
fight against starvation and for self
determination in the BLACK Belt"
with confscation of the land of the
rich white landowners for the Negro
and white toilers who work the land.
The Atlanta Six includes two white
| men. two Negro men and two white
girls arrested for the crime" of orga-
nizing white and Negro workers to-
gether for joint struggle against their
oppressors.
Letters Show Support.
NEW YORK.-An indication of the
immediate response of the workers
of the country to the vicious chain
gang sentence against Angelo Hern-
don is contained in a letter received
by the International Labor Defense
on Saturday from a sympathizer.
Herndon- Scottsboro defense commit
tees are being organized now in At
lanta. Negro intellectuals are COM
ing forward in support of the de-
Tense and have pledged themselves
to raise any necessary amount of bail
to effect Herndon's release pending
the appeal.