The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-05-04
BY MYRA PAGE

However he may have broken the
richman's law, it is clear that pow
erty has been his main crime.
The jaileT pushes the woman and
children aside, unlocks the door.
We pass through, and the door
clangs to behind US. Beyond an
other steel door, in cage still
further removed from sun and air
are the colored prisoners. The Jim
Crow system is very strictly en-
forced here; white men, be they
thieves, murderers or dope addicts,
are still superior" to any Negro.
So the Georgia state law rules.
From the narrow stone floor
stagger tier on tier of musty
cramped cells. This danny shaft
way is like those in an Eastside
tenement, only the stencil is much
worse. 1t is high noon outside;
here the gloom seeps to your very
bones. The tomb of the living
dead.
In a nasty key, the jailer drawls
to a keeper, Bring that niger
Herndon down here" The cry
echoes up the tiers "Herndon|
Somewhere key clicks, barred
door is thrown back. He starts
down the tiers, this son of an Ala
bama coal digger who began work
in the mines too as a lad of thir-
teen. l recall the simple teTse
words in which he has recorded
his first acquaintance with the
revolutionary movement.
Zone day a friend and l, in a
search of work, happened to come
across some handbills stuck to a
post. We snatched one off. We
did not take time to read it night
then. After looking all over Birm-
ingham for work, we set out fol
home. l took the handful out Of
my pocket. l saw the startling
headline "Would you rather fight
or starve?" l called my friend
We both sat down and began tt
read that handful. Near the bot
tom was the announcement of {
meeting called for 8 o'clock in the
heart of the town, by the Unem
ployed Council. All the way there
I said to myself, It's war. IT,
war. So I might as well get int
it now as any other time"
The Negro youth finds white
and colored workers waiting =
something new in the South. Hi
friend is afraid, but Angelo joins
goes to his first demonstration.
When the National Unemployet
Convention is held in 1880 in Chi
cago, he is elected delegate. Tn
Kluxers distribut threatening han'
bills, stage night-shirt paTades
Angeles relatives try to persuad
him from going to the convention
for their their home will be bombe'
by the Klan. He goes anyway
and returns to begin organization
work among the miners. The BIZ
Tel. corporation orders his ar
rest. So at II, he is handcuffe
to a white organizer and comrade
! and thrown in jail. They ar
charged with vagrancy, sentence
to years hard labor on the chat
gang-but the LID. has them &C
quilted.
Arrested several times after ths
for organizing the miners and ur
employed, he is sent into the Blac
! Belt to organize the sharecTopper'
: and barely escapes a lynch mol
! He is active in the Scottsboro com
{ paign, the Dred Scott case of tn
Negro people in the South. Tn
! Birmingham underworld tries t.
frame him in connection with tn
Willie Peterson frameup, but fai
/, Herndon, sent to Atlanta to orgs
nize the unemployed, although h
barely is 10, is already schooled
. the fight, and able to meet wha
! ever comes
= The steps grow nearer. Dow
= the Jail stairs comes a slight, VI
, right figure in a white shirt ar
tea trousers. There is no mistal
. ing: his gait, his eyes are unafrai
: Not even Fulton Prison ca
break revolutionist.
q The jailer glares his hate. ''Vis
o tors". He thumbs at US. The
y youth crosses over. slow. mode
o smile liohFing his face. ViSito
are rare. and orr call unexpecte