John Armstrong was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina on June 15, 1874. A resident of Montgomery County, in 1918 he was arrested and sentenced to time on the Stanly County roadwork chain gang, where he witnessed his superintendent, Nevin C. Cranford, murder two other African American prisoners. In 1926 he testified against Cranford, who had been charged with the murder of three prisoners. He died from a gunshot wound in Randolph County on April 26, 1955.