BLACK HISTORY MONTH
African Americans in the Spanish Civil War
By Michael Kramer
I would like to make a film on the life of a Black
commander of the Lincoln Battalion in the International
Brigades who died there; but this would be refused by the big
Yankee movie companies.
--Paul Robeson, 1938
On July 18, 1936, a fascist-led counter-revolutionary army
revolt began against the five-year-old Spanish Republic and the
coalition of various centrist and progressive parties that had
been popularly elected five months before. The coalition was
called the Popular Front and included the Communist Party of
Spain.
The revolt received crucial logistical and material support
from fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Portugal. The German
and Italian air forces deployed over Spain and terror-bombed
densely populated, working-class neighborhoods in Madrid and
Barcelona while submarines blockaded Republican seaports.
By November 1936 the situation was desperate. The Spanish
Republic pleaded for help against the fascist onslaught.
Communists, trade unionists and progressives all over the world
took up the cause of the Spanish Republic. Thousands
volunteered to fight and the International Brigades were
formed.
Around 3,000 volunteers went to Spain from the U.S. to take
part in the armed struggle against fascism and most fought in
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The U.S. Communist Party played a
leading role in organizing the Brigade and maintaining its
support network. More than half the volunteers were killed or
seriously wounded. Over 80 of the volunteers were
African-American.
Black solidarity
In an article on the Web site www.africana.com, Prof. Robin
Kelley relates how Black newspapers like the Pittsburgh
Courier, the Baltimore Afro-American, the Atlanta Daily World
and the Chicago Defender "unequivocally sided with the Spanish
Republic and occasionally carried feature articles about black
participants in the Lincoln Brigade. ... Several black medical
personnel from the United Aid for Ethiopia offered medical
supplies and raised money in the community; Harlem churches and
professional organizations sponsored rallies in behalf of the
Spanish Republic; black relief workers and doctors raised
enough money to purchase a fully equipped ambulance for use in
Spain; and some of Harlem's greatest musicians, including Cab
Calloway, Fats Waller, Count Basie, W.C. Handy, Jimmy
Lunceford, Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake gave benefit concerts
sponsored by the Harlem Musicians' Committee for Spanish
Democracy. ..."
Black volunteers found it especially difficult to travel to
Spain. In the out-of-print pamphlet "Black Americans in the
Spanish People's War Against Fascism," volunteer James Yates
related: "I'll never forget Dec. 26, 1936. Ninety-six Americans
sailed from the port of New York. Among those were a number of
Blacks. I would have been among the first group had I not been
born in the racist state of Mississippi; they didn't give birth
certificates to Black people in those days so I was
delayed."
On Feb. 27, 1937, in a battle on the Jarama River, the first
Black volunteer was killed in combat. His name was Alonzo
Watson. "Alonzo, slight and quiet in his mannerisms, was a son
of struggle. He saw fascism as the personification of racism.
He had volunteered to fight in Ethiopia but the war ended. When
the call came for volunteers for Spain, where Italian troops
had been sent, Alonzo answered the call." A memorial meeting
was held in Harlem for the community to remember Watson.
Three Black volunteers received battlefield promotions for
bravery in that battle: Oliver Law, Walter Garland and Douglas
Roach.
Gets promotion denied him
in U.S. Army
Oliver Law had been born on a ranch in Texas. He served six
years in the segregated U.S. Army and, despite his talent, rose
no higher in rank than private.
He lived on the South Side of Chicago, worked in
construction and became a political activist. During the
capitalist crisis of the 1930s known as the Great Depression,
the police constantly targeted Law as he organized the
unemployed and fought against racism. He helped organize the
historic 10,000-strong Aug. 31, 1935, rally for Ethiopia, where
he was arrested by the Chicago police while trying to speak to
the crowd.
Law joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as a private. In only
six months he was promoted to brigade commander. Oliver Law was
the first African-American to command U.S. citizens in an
integrated military unit.
Law was described by Steve Nelson, his comrade, as "six foot
two and powerfully built ... more serious than jovial, but
never harsh; he was well liked by his men. ...When soldiers
were asked who might become an officer--ours was a very
democratic army--his name always came up. It was spoken of him
that he was calm under fire, dignified, respectful of his men,
and always given to thoughtful consideration of initiatives and
military missions."
Brigade Commander Oliver Law was killed on July 9, 1937,
while leading an attack on Mosquito Ridge during the Battle of
Brunete.
Douglas "Doug" Roach grew up on Cape Cod in Massachusetts
and was a communist. He played football at Provincetown High
School and graduated from Massachusetts Agricultural College,
where he was a star wrestler. Roach was wounded at Brunete by
shrapnel and received a citation.
A daily bulletin written by his comrades in the trenches
observed, "It was not merely his physical strength--he could
carry a heavy machine gun over the hills of Brunete when others
were too exhausted to walk--it was his moral fiber, his courage
which earned him a citation for bravery." Roach was repatriated
to the U.S. Weakened by his wounds, he contracted pneumonia and
died the following year at the age of 29.
Women volunteers
In 1934 Salaria Kee graduated from Harlem Hospital Training
School as a nurse and was assigned to the obstetrical division.
She was the only nurse assigned to a 50-baby maternity-nursery
ward. Racist conditions like this politicized her and she
joined a group of progressive nurses.
When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the group gathered and
sent tons of medical supplies as well as a 75-bed field
hospital to the Ethiopian troops resisting the fascist
invasion. On March 27, 1937, Key left New York for Spain with a
medical group of 12 nurses and physicians. Inspired by the
resistance to fascism in Africa and Europe, she reacted, "I'm
not going to sit down and let this happen. I'm going to go out
even if it means my life. This is my world. I'm a nurse."
She was the only African-American woman to serve in the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Other women served in the Brigade
medical units and as truck and ambulance drivers.
There are so many other stories to tell about the heroic
African-American internationalists who left the U.S. to give
the strongest solidarity possible to their Spanish sisters,
brothers and comrades. Volunteers like Jim Peck and Paul
Williams who flew fighter planes for the Spanish Republic and
Milton Herndon who was killed at Fuentes de Ebro on Oct. 13,
1937, while fighting with the mostly Canadian
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of the International Brigades.
There was Dr. Arnold Donowa, an oral surgeon from Harvard
University, and Thaddeus Battle, a student from Howard
University. Their stories are an inspiration for activists
today and for those who are thinking about getting involved in
today's struggles. Their stories should be taught in the
schools as part of Black History Month celebrations.
Volunteer Thomas Page was wounded badly in August 1938
during the River Ebro offensive. Years later, talking to other
volunteers, he remembered, "Spain was the first place I felt
like a free man. Leaving Spain was one of the saddest days of
my life. Just the thought of going back to Jim Crow America
made me sick! Like me you realized that after Spain our
struggle was at home, just as it was before we sailed for
Europe."
Reprinted from the Feb. 21, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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