Let Me Live

by Angelo Herndon, Marlon Ross (Introduction)

Let Me Live tells the remarkable story of Angelo Herndon, a coal miner who worked as a labor organizer in Alabama and Georgia in the 1930s. Herndon led a racially integrated march of the unemployed in 1932 and was subsequently arrested when Communist Party literature was found in his bedroom. His trial made only small headlines at first, but eventually an international campaign to free him emerged, thanks to the efforts of the Communist Party and of labor unions interested in protecting the right to organize in the South. Herndon was finally set free by the U.S. Supreme Court, with the help of well-known leaders including C. Vann Woodward, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Whitney North Seymour, Sr.

Written while Herndon was in prison, Let Me Live tells the story behind his arrest and his struggle through the courts. It also describes his early life as a young boy in poverty, as a laborer in the Kentucky mines, and as a construction gang worker and traces the birth and development of his passion for the Communist Party. Originally published in 1937, this is the first new edition of Let Me Live since 1969, when Howard N. Meyer rescued it from obscurity. The book features texts from the Georgia and U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the text of Herndon’s speech, and newspaper editorials from the era. A substantive and thought-provoking introduction by Marlon B. Ross of the University of Virginia sheds light on this unique story and its importance to our understanding of the intersection of race and class in America—past and present. 

“A book which every thoughtful American may do well to read. It is moving and challenging as the story of one man’s life and the question of one man’s fate.”

            —New York Times

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir

456 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2007

Reviews

[trx · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing autobiography from one of the progenitors of black/communist revolution in the US; largely suppressed in amerikan history. This book reads like a novel of the most intimate form, & at times, Herndon's indelible spirit in the face of systemic classism +/ racism, feels like heroic fiction. Herndon's control over language is clear-eyed & forward, moving & profound. The sort of book that gradually unfurls its curiosity over you, until suddenly you realize, you must know how it ends!

[mycah · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting read.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful revolutionary person who deserves his place in our collective memories.

We need more history books on the southern Marxists during the peak of the southern communist parties.

[Walidah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad that this book was reprinted! I was lucky enough to get a copy through my school that was a first edition printed in 1937. It was crazy to hold that book, it brought Angelo Herndon's powerful story even closer. I think every organizer needs to read this to see how long the issues we struggle with have been going on, and to know that even as a black man in the south in the 1930s, Angelo was able to change history, so why the hell can't we do it??