The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-28
angelo Herndon Replies to CO,Oardy
Insult of George Schuyler, Pittsburgh
CoImanist, That HE VIII Skip BaiI!''
Repeatedly Knitted the
ScOttsbOrO Boys
in the Back

III AAlC OdCh
ONE of the most vicious pen
v prostitutes plying his trade in
the Negro press is an individual
named George Schuyler. regular
columnist for the Pittsburgh
Courier.
Throughout the fight for the lives
Of the Scottsboro boys, a fight
which is So profoundly stirring the
Negro and white masses of the en-
tire world, rousing them to struggle
in united action, this lackey of the
bourgeoisie has stopped at nothing
in his attempt to disrupt the gi-
gantic protest movement waged by
the International Labor Defense
and supported by the Communist
Party.
Unable to dampen the indigna-
ton aroused by the case and the
enthusiastic support it has evoked,
Schuyler now thrusts his poisonous
fangs into the young working class
hero. Angelo Herndon, who by his
heroic defiance of the southern
lynchers has captured the hearts
and minds of millions of Negro and
white workers.
In his column, appearing on Aug.
Is, Schuyler, after a scurrilous at
tack on the Communist Party. re-
plete with distortions and outright
lies, makes the following statement:
"Herndon is out on bail. and will
probably skip it, like all the rest.
This cowardly insult was in
stantly challenged by Angelo Hern-
don, who has written to Schuyler
demanding a public retraction.
Herndon's letter follows in full:
"Mr. George Schuyler:
During the rs months I spent in
Fulton Tower prison. in Georgia. I
followed-as regularly as my tor
mentors would allow-the Negro
press. Week by week, reading the
Pittsburgh Courier, I was amazed
and angered by the viciousness Of
your attacks upon the working class,
both Negro and white, and eSpe-
cially by your attacks upon the
militant section of that class.
What ScottsborO Means
II had taken active part in the
Scottsboro fight, and I knew what
that fight means to the Negro peo-
pie and the working class. I knew
that when the International Labor
Defense and the League of Struggle
for Negro Rights took up the fight
for these boys, every Negro worker
and sharecropper, especially in the
South. breathed easier and held his
head higher. was particularly an
gered by your repeated attempts to
knife the Scottsboro boys in the
back. You sneered at the people
who massed to save those boys; you
did everything you could to dis
courage the fight; you gloated over
the repeated death sentences.
To-day picked up a COPY of your
paper, and found that just as you
have repeatedly knitted the Scots
boro boys, so you have attempted to
knife me also.
After thousands of workers and
sympathizerS have labored, sacri-
feed and actually suffered to get
together the $4,000 that the Geor-
gia lynchers demanded for my bail,
you announce to the world at large
that 'Herndon is out on bail. and
will probably skip it like all the
rest You make this statement
without one iota of evidence to sup
port 1t. You have never spoken to
me, or written to me- You can know
nothing of my feelings or intsn-
tons. Yet you dare to tell the
world that I intend to betray the
struggle, that I will play the Negro
people and the working class false
You say this knowing that the peo-
pie who contributed to my bail did
so feeling that I would not desert
the struggle.
You know very we'll that without
the continued support-financia
organizational, political - of the
Negro people and the working class,
my case cannot be fought further
and I will inevitably fall into the
clutches of the Georgia lynch-rul-
ers. I am facing a sentence of 10
to 20 years on the chain-gang
sentence equivalent to death-and
my only hope is in the masses. And
YOU, stabbing me in the back in
this crucial moment of my fight, at
tempt to destroy the confidence
that the people have in me. This
is an action worthy of a police
agent
Good Standing with White Rulers
Mr.. Schuyler, you have already
won your spurs with the lynch
rulers of Alabama. Your latest at
tack on the Scottsboro defense. first
printed in the Spectator. has been
reprinted with hearty approval by
the Jackson County Sentinel, home
town paper of the Scottsboro lynch
ers, the same paper which whipped
up lynch-spirit against these nine
BOYS when they were first arrested.
Your attack upon me should ex-