It was July 11, 1932. Angelo Herndon dropped by his local post office in Atlanta to pick up his mail when two police officers handcuffed him, brought him to their station, and proceeded to beat him. Eleven days passed before Herndon was charged with a crime: attempting to incite insurrection. He would remain jailed, in squalid conditions, for close to six months before being released on bail. At Herndon’s trial, the prosecutor urged the jury—all white men—to impose the death penalty. Ultimately, justice prevailed. Five years after his arrest, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Herndon, overturning the Reconstruction-era insurrection law that had been used against him. Herndon’s supposed crime? A Black Communist, he was in possession of radical literature, including leaflets demanding better treatment of workers.
Although he drew support from, among others, Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, Herndon is a largely obscure figure today. A new book seeks to rectify this. Written by Georgetown Law professor Brad Snyder, You Can’t Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads: Angelo Herndon’s Fight for Free Speech (Norton, Feb. 4) is, in the words of our starred review, “an inspiring portrait from an appalling chapter in American history.”
Snyder’s account of Herndon’s heroism is one of several books that offer readers fresh perspectives during Black History Month and beyond. Another notable title documents a little-known side of Shirley Chisholm’s attempt, in 1972, to become the first woman to occupy the White House. The book is Juanita Tolliver’s A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics (Legacy Lit/Hachette, Jan. 14), which our review describes as “an ebullient and trenchant look at a trailblazing campaign for president.”
Much has been written about Malcolm X, of course, but a recent book focuses on the Black leader’s early life. In Malcolm Before X (Univ. of Massachusetts, 2024), Patrick Parr delves into rarely seen primary sources to paint, says our starred review, “a rich portrait of a young revolutionary.”
Many came to have a fuller sense of Malcolm X thanks to the landmark PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize. Juan Williams, who wrote the accompanying book, updates that work with New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement. Our review called it “an important appraisal of the present-day struggle for civil rights.”
Williams’ book makes clear that the fight for equal rights—and respect—is an ongoing battle. Irvin Weathersby Jr. proves as much with In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space (Viking, Jan. 7), in which he speaks out against public monuments that pay tribute to Confederate figures. The book, says our review, is “a spirited and often poetic treatment of an important and timely topic.”
Tamara Lanier, for her part, has taken on no less an institution than Harvard University, challenging its ownership of images that depict her enslaved ancestors. She shares her story in From These Roots: My Fight With Harvard To Reclaim My Legacy (Crown, Jan. 28); our review praises it as “a stirring first-person account of holding powerful institutions responsible for abetting slavery.”
John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.
