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PARTIAL & PRELIMINARY LISTING OF BLACK VETERANS IN ABRAHAM LINCOLN BATTALION AND 15TH INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE

[[left column]]
Alexander, Frank Edward
Archer, Amos
Baker, William
Battle, Thaddeus Arrington
Beebe, Vernold
Brown, Tom
Callion, Walter
Carter, Council Gibson
Chesterton
Chisholm, Albert Edward
Chowan, Mike
Cleveland, Roland
Coad, Mack
Cobbs, Walter
Collado, Tomas
Collins, Leroy
Cox, James
Cueria y Orbit, Basilio
Dicks, Walter
Dickson, Nathaniel
Donowa, Arnold Bennett
Dukes, Larry Stratford
Frankson, Kanute (Oliver)
Garland, Walter Benjamin
Gavin, Eugene Victor
George, Henry
Gibbs, Theodore
Goldwyn, Gerald
[[end left column]]
[[middle column]]
Graham, Meredith Sydnor
Gutierrez, Centurio
Haywood, Harry
Harvey, George
Herndon, Milton
Hunter, John P.
Hunter, Oscar Henry
Jackson, Burt Edward
Johnson, Aaron Bernard
Johnson, Edward
Johnson, Richard
Kee, Salaria
Kilpatrick, Admiral
Law, Oliver
Lewis, Abraham
Lewis, Charles
Lisberg, Norma
Love, Vaughan
McDaniels, Eluard Luchell
Mitchell, Andrew
Moore, William
Morgan, Crawford
Page, Thomas
Parker, Charles Augustus
Peck, James Lincoln Holt
Pringle, Claude
Prowell, Alpheus Danforth
[[end middle column]]
[[right column]]
Ransom, Marcus
Reeves, Otto
Rhetta, Virgil
Roach, Douglas
Rochester, Sterling
Rodriguez, Julius
Roosevelt, Patrick
Rose, oliver Charles
Rosario, Conrado Figueroa
Rucker, Bernard
Seacord, Douglas
Swanson, Weat
Taylor, Daniel Bede
Taylor, Joseph
Thornton, Ralph
Trent, Tom
Verdier, Herbert
Warfield, Frank
Waters, George Walter
Watson, Alonzo
Weiderman, Jefferson
White, Edward
Wickman, Morris Hery
Williams, Fred
Williams, Paul E.
Willis, Sam
Yates, James
Youngblood, Charles
[[end right column]]
_____________________________________________________________

Ever since 1939 we have talked about preparing a history of the more than 80 Black Americans who were volunteers in the Lincoln Brigade.

With the assistance of the VALB Historical Commission, I have obtained a list of Blacks and some additional data about them.

I have been conducting research in our archives and in libraries and have begun recording and writing recollections of surviving vets.

I need the help of all vets and non-vets in getting additional information about Black comrades they knew in Spain, especially those who were killed there. Perhaps you have photos, letters, or even know the whereabouts of the relatives of deceased Black veterans, or perhaps you can recall an incident, or knew a Black volunteer prior to 1937, etc., etc.

Please send, direct to me, any recollections or information you may have.

Comradely,
James Yates
415 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

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In preparing this publication, we referred a good deal to the following for information and facts:
1. "In Memoriam"--Paul Robeson, American World Patriot, Memorial service, Rev. Dr. Donald Harrington, 1975
2. Here I Stand, Paul Robeson, Othello Associates Publishers, 1958
3. Paul Robeson-- Tributes--Selected Writings, 1976
4. The Heart of Spain, Edited by Alvah Bessie, VALB Publishers 1952
5. The Lincoln Battalion, Edwin Rolfe, VALB Publishers, 1939
6. Men In The Ranks, Joseph North, Friends Abraham Lincoln Battalion Publishers, 1939
7. A Negro Nurse in Republican Spain, Negro Committee to Aid Spain, Medical Bureau North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy Publishers
8. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Arthur H. Landis, Citadel Press, 1967
9. The Book of the XV Brigade, Frank Ryan, February 1, 1938. Records of the British, American, Canadian and Irish Volunteers in the XVth International Brigade in Spain 1936-1938
10. International Solidarity with the Spanish Republic 1937-1938 by Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.-Soviet War Veterans Committee Spanish Section, Progress Publishers
Pictures, Correspondence and Memorabilia from J. Brandt Collection

NOTE:
*There were five brigades in all. The Eleventh known as the Thaelmann Brigade composed of German anti-fascists Communists in the main including escapees from concentration camps. The Twelfth Brigade known as the Garibaldis consisted of Italian anti-Fascists. The Thirteenth Brigade was composed of Slavic-speaking anti-fascists made up of Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Romanians, Yugoslavs and other east Europeans. They went under the name of the Dombrowski Brigade. The Fourteenth Brigade was composed of French and Belgian anti-fascists. The fifth and last brigade organized in January, 1937 at Albacete was the Fifteenth Brigade. The English-speaking brigade composing the British Battalion, the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, the 59th Spanish Battalion composed of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican and South American volunteers, and the Abraham Lincoln Battalion (ALB) made up of volunteers from the United States of America.

"In the United States itself, the 15th Brigade in its entirety was usually referred to as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. In this context what was actually meant was not so much the brigade itself but the (Abraham Lincoln Battalion- ALB) or total grouping of Americans in Spain who were scattered throughout the various international auxiliary units including the John Brown Field Artillery Battery, and the Washington Battalion which was an integral part of the ALB. The final result of this complexity was that a dual procedure was used by the American press, radio, and other information media: in all areas of combat the men were referred to as the Abraham Lincoln Battalion; where American volunteers in general were being dealt with they were referred to as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade."

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade
by Arthur H. Landis, Citadel Publishers

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