WEBVTT - Part Two: Black Antifascists In the Spanish Civil War 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.680 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.639 Hello, and welcome to cool People distract themselves from the 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:14.160 apocalypse by reading history. Your podcast for reading history instead 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.960 of thinking about the apocalypse. I'm your host, Margaret Kiljoy, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.240 and that's always what this show is called. And also 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.799 I have a guest, but the guest is sort of 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.280 the host, and that guest is Jordan. 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:27.520 Hi. 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:32.199 Jordan, Hello, how's this totally different day? This is that 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.920 bit's kind of old. Everyone knows that we record on 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.919 the same day, and then I just find that amusing. 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:39.880 I like the little peak behind the curtain. 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:42.239 Yeah, I mean, I'm glad today I get to be 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.760 the time traveler instead of being time traveled on that's true. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.720 Yeah, And I don't have to wait until today in 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:50.960 order to hear all these things. 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:52.680 I get to hear them now. 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.240 But the other person who is on the call is 0:00:55.240 --> 0:01:01.440 Sophie Hi. Sophie Hi. Sophie's our producer. It's we also 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.280 have an audio engineer named Rory. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.240 Rory him Rory, And. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.080 Our theme music was written forced by on Woman. And 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:14.360 this is part two of a two parter about the 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:19.760 anti fascist black history of the going from resistance in 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.360 the slave nightmare world of the United States. Over to 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.360 I always hear people say the sands of Spain. I 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.119 haven't spent a lot of time in Spain. Maybe there's 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:30.040 a sands there. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:30.600 I don't know. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.360 Yeah, I don't know too much about the topography of 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:38.800 Spain either, but I never really think sand, you know what. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:40.800 It's come up in a bunch of different things. So 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.399 we're gonna say the sands of Spain anyway, just out 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:48.320 of because it sounds romantic. This is part two, and 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.200 in part one, let's see, our heroes just crossed the 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:57.480 Pyrenees from uh, what was it, from Mississippi originally up 0:01:57.480 --> 0:01:57.880 to harm. 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.640 Yeah, a lot of them are from Mississippi, some from Midwest. 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.080 There's a lot of Ohio involvement in this story that 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:03.960 I was not expecting. 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:07.640 Makes sense, I know, right. 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.560 I'm like when you did that episode on the I 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:12.840 can't even remember about Oberlin and all that stuff. It's 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.120 like Oberlin's takes a lot of game, but no one 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:16.920 here believes them, but maybe we should. 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.840 Yeah, it used to be Ohio, dude, come bring it back, 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.840 bring back that energy. And now they are crossing the 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.519 Pyrenees into Spain. What happens? 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.519 Well, I kind of want to take it back again 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:37.520 to talk about some of the okay, yeah, yeah, not 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.640 just yet, not yet. So kind of the talk before 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.520 is like there is a lot of history around, like 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.359 the racial politics of the Communist Party at this time, 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:49.519 and like ways that they were taking a lot of dubs, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.399 also a lot of ls. But one dub they did 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:55.600 in this too is I've inferred from context. 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.240 When the dub is I'm old, but I figured it out, 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:00.440 it's short for w yes, I mean to win. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:07.200 Okay, uh oh, magpie, So you're so pure, I'm good? 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.480 Is there every time you have a pop culture reference 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.320 you don't get I feel you on that because I 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:13.440 don't either half the time. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.160 So I'm just like, okay, they're still solid. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.560 Yeah, okay. So they've they've taken some wins and some losses. 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:23.000 And one of their big wins was they did as 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:24.919 a lot of communists do. As soon as they heard 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:29.919 about the Republic needing people, they formed a committee. They 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.440 formed a committee and they had a volunteer drive that 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.960 was mainly through word of mouth and through ads. And 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.320 what I find really interesting is this use of media 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.640 in how they basically the way they got their ads 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.920 into newspapers through kind of like this embargo on any 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:51.640 American citizens having any involvement in Spanish Civil War was 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.200 they put in ads into newspapers that were asking for 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.120 workers for Spain. So they would say something along the 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.560 lines of Spain needs American workers, and they would like 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.440 ask for money to help send people across, and they'd 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.920 be like, your contribution help save Spain from fascism. Hard 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:11.880 pressed by the fascist invaders, the Spanish people call on 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.520 the American workers to take on They would claim that 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.080 they would take on like industrial or productive jobs in 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.920 Spain so that each worker from America would free up 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.400 a Spanish worker to join the military forces of his 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.360 own country. Like that was like the logic they were 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.080 using in the ads that would help them get through censorship, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.640 which I think is really beautiful. It kind of reminds 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.479 me of the different ways that like through music and 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.840 song there was like literally pathways to freedom, like through 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.520 the underground railroad and through so many other different things. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.760 It's like, if you know, you know, this may be 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.200 a poem to you, but it's getting me northwest, south 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:47.560 and east to the Ohio River. 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.040 Yeah, okay. I also I think it's productive labor to 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:56.720 shoot fascists in history. Only in history. It would be 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.719 morally and legally wrong now for some reason that I 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:00.800 can't quite determined. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.800 But yeah, in getting to Spain, a lot of volunteers, 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.560 and especially a lot of black volunteers, they had to 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.760 lie heavy. They lie their ass off. They were saying 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.279 we went to we were tourists or students. Some of 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.200 them like pretended to be archaeologists to the point that 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.880 they were scared of the FEDS watching them, or like 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:25.520 international police like talking. So they would like pick up 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.920 rocks outside of the train station and like look at 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:29.320 it to each other and be like, oh, isn't this 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:34.000 an interesting rock? And it was really a lot of 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:38.800 heavy organizing happening with the Communist Party as well. And 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.359 there's this one white communist his name is Steve Nelson 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.480 and he was from Pennsylvania. And one of their motivators 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.880 was they heard that the English were signing up, and 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.920 they were like, we can't let the English outorganize us, 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.480 so we have to send our own volunteers to Spain. 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:54.560 Uh huh. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.400 Yeah. For the main focus of this episode. 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.440 I just wanted to highlight a lot of the black 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:04.040 anti fat that went over to Spain and really harp 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.400 on the point that fighting fascism is not just about 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.400 the combatant, and for every combatant, there's at least ten 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.200 to twenty other support roles or even just as important 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.240 roles that are happening. So to start, I want to 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:21.040 talk about Paul Robison born in Princeton, New Jersey. Robison 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.960 was an internationally rerounded singer, actor, activist, and he became 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.640 one of the most influential African American figures in the 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:32.240 twentieth century. Active throughout the nineteen thirties, Robison used his 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.159 celebrity and oratorical skills to champion the Republican cause in 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.680 Spain during the Civil War. Although he wasn't a combatant, 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:44.200 Robison's powerful speeches and writings, featured in outlets like The 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.560 Negro Worker at the time, provided a moral and cultural 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.640 impetus for anti fascist resistance, and it was a fight 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:54.440 between freedom and oppression, a fight that connected directly to 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.640 the struggles of black people in the United States and 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.960 across the world. Robison has famously said, and I grab 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.960 this quote from Martin Duberman's book Robson, which is a biography, 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.880 and he said quote, the artists must elect to fight 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:08.279 for freedom or slavery. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:09.840 I have made my choice. 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:14.720 I have no alternative end quote, and Robison used his voice. 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.080 He traveled to Spain in nineteen thirty eight at the 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.600 height of the war, where he performed for the troops 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:23.600 and especially finding joy and singing and speaking with the 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.400 international volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He sang songs 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.560 in English Spanish, songs of hope, solidarity, resistance, and it 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:32.480 wasn't just a show. 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:33.680 Wait was that? Sorry? 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.680 The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was the American volunteers, Yes, And. 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.760 The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was the American volunteers. And specifically, 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.280 each brigade had like their own name for their volunteers 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.480 that were based on some progressive or radical person at 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.960 the time. There was a lot other countries had a 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:52.640 lot better names than the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. To be honest, 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.800 because I just fact check, hate linking, terrible, terrible person. 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.000 Right after that Emancipation Proclamation sixty four, li Cota is dead, 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.400 So yeah, fuck Lincoln on this podcast, but no critical support. 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:08.080 But Robertson was like, oh, the brigade, the brigades chill 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:11.360 and he believed his art was a weapon, and his 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:15.720 concerts were morale boosters for the exhausted soldiers risking everything 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.720 against Franco's fascist He also raised funds for Spanish refugees, 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:24.160 organized rallies back in the States, and worked to keep 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:28.080 up the international attention on the Spanish people's fights. When 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.680 he got home, he kept speaking out, drawing direct lines 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.640 between the fascism abroad and all the racism at home, 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.000 and he warned that if fascism succeeded in Spain, it 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.439 would threaten people everywhere, especially black people fighting Jim Crow 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:46.280 oppression in the US. The US and the FBI hated 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.720 him for it. His activism in Spain would later be 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.520 used against him during the McCarthy era when he was 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.640 blacklisted and then eventually had his passport revoked, which I 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:58.120 believe it wasn't until fifty eight I'll get into it later, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.040 but until he got it back, and that was a 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.160 landmark case for a lot of American Spanish Civil War 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.640 vets that came back to get their passports back to 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.520 be able to have any sort of traveling. Another wonderful 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.240 person that came out of Ohio, Well, they're from Georgia. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:18.880 But came out of Ohio. Was Salaria key. Actually, I 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.360 guess now they're salari a key O'Reilly because she married 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:26.520 an Irish dude born on July thirteenth, nineteen thirteen in Georgia, 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.760 and her father was a hospital gardener who was killed 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:32.640 by a patient when she was a baby, prompting the 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.440 family to relocate to Akron, and she was raised by 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.720 her older brothers fighting racist barriers in Ohio that had 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.680 denied her access to nursing school. She then moved to 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.480 New York in nineteen thirties, graduating from Harlem Hospital, a 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.360 school of nursing, in thirty four. While she was still 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:53.040 a student, she fought for racial justice, successfully helping desegregate 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.319 the hospital staff, dining room, and improve working conditions for 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:57.079 black nurses. 0:09:58.040 --> 0:09:59.280 So she's already doing good shit. 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:01.280 Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.040 And she was the person who I mentioned at the 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:07.760 beginning that during the Ethiopian invasion by Italy organized funding 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.319 for a seventy five bed hospital in Ethiopia at the. 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:13.679 Time, So I was doing a lot of that on 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.120 the groundwork. Yeah. 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.319 And after her graduation, she became one of the head 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.199 nurses at Seaview Hospital and then became really politically activated. 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.720 Some people claim she joined the party by the party, 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.640 I mean the Communist Party of the USA, but she 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.080 has formally denied any membership, really, claiming that her actions 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.200 were more motivated by her deep Catholic faith, in anti 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.480 racist convictions and in ideological alignment with the Republican Spain. 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.880 And around this time, she was also denied access to 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.520 work with the American Red Cross because of her race, 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.959 being quote like contentious in the field. Like the supervisor 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:54.080 was like, I'm not racist, but people on the ground 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.080 are really racists, so you can't have the job. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:00.080 One. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.079 That's the only time that anything like that's ever happened. 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:04.320 It's so obviously hypocritical. None would ever do that. 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.559 Yeah no, and I mean that stopped after nineteen sixty five, 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.240 so writes out, I mean nothing, j Jimcrow ended and yeah, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:11.800 actually we're kind of chilling America. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:12.960 We can end the podcast right here. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:19.280 Yeah. Key's political consciousness deepened after the Italian evasion in 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.199 nineteen thirty five, which became a catalyst for her and 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:27.319 her anti fascist activism. She denied opportunities to serve in Ethiopia, 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:31.080 but she also at that time was more dedicated of 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.160 doing local work in her community and trying to then 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.520 do solidarity work, which was the impetus for doing the 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:41.040 stuff that she knew well, which was working as a 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.640 medical worker and organizing folks around that to get support 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.280 that was needed on the ground in Ethiopia. Later, she 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.120 ended up vauling tearing for the Spanish Civil War through 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:55.120 the American Medical Bureau, joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.160 nineteen thirty seven around March and she became the only 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.480 African American nurse in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, working at 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.000 a field hospital near Madrid called via Paz, where she 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.760 was appointed head surgical nurse. There she supervised white nurses, 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.640 an unprecedented opportunity for a black woman in the Jim 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.320 Crow era from the United States especially, and treated wounded 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:19.320 soldiers from a variety of countries, experiences she later described 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.800 as among the most fulfilling of her life. She was 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.880 also captured at one point by Nationalist forces and imprisoned 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.480 for six weeks before being freed. Also in the Spanish 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.679 Civil War is where she met her husband, John O'Reilly, 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.560 who was an injured Irish volunteer and I can only 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:38.360 imagine what that love story was, Like, I want a 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:39.120 movie on that. 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:41.240 Yeah. 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.120 In thirty eight, she was also injured in a bombing raid, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.040 forcing her to return to the US. That same year, 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:49.920 she published a pamphlet memoir called Salary a Key, a 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.160 Negro nurse in Republic in Spain, offering more of a 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.760 first hand account of her time in that war that 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:57.040 I highly recommend for folks. 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:00.600 And I think it's interesting because we talk about all 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.160 the time, like, oh, well they weren't you know, the 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:05.559 nurses aren't the front line fighters, and like in a 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.599 war like this, you are a frontline fighter. She was captured, 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.640 she was bombed, Like she's a frontline fighter you have 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.120 to go through, I know. And it's also like a 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:21.960 nonsensical distinction anyway, but like, damn, I'm glad she survived. 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:26.120 Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And she's also mentioned in some documentaries 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.160 out there that folks can watch, I think one called 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:32.320 The Good Fight where she's interviewed in that directly. There's 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.800 also another person, Canut Frankson, who was a Jamaican born 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:39.920 auto mechanic and volunteer and one of the few black 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.640 members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as well which overall 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.040 there was about ninety total black folks that went over 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.720 from the US that we can like count. And he 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.440 wrote a lot of letters. One quote from one is 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.079 quote the Negro of the United States must not be fools. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.440 We must not forget the lynchings, the Scottsboro Boys, the 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.679 injustice in Harlem and in the South. Franco was not 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.920 only the enemy of the Spanish people, he is the 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:09.480 enemy of the Negro people of the entire world. 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:10.959 And that comes from a letter he. 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.640 Was writing, I believe, to his lover at the time 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.800 or friends back home in the States, when kind of 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.680 justifying why he went and came, because he was already 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.480 doing political work before. But like a lot of people, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:26.960 you don't tell everyone where you're going. When you're going 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.120 to go fight in the anti fascist war halfway across 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:29.520 the world. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.160 People might stop you. Your mom might be like no. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.960 But he came to the United States and around nineteen seventeen, 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:42.120 initially settling around in Pennsylvania where he worked as a machinist, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.280 and he eventually then moved on to Detroit, Michigan, where 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.600 he worked in the automobile industry and became deeply involved 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.560 in the labor organizing and black radical politics of the area. 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.720 He was a member of the United Automobile Workers of America, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:15:00.680 the National Negro Congress INAACP, and joined the Immunist Party 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:03.640 USA in December nineteen thirty four, where he served as 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.280 a section organizer. Driven by his anti fascist convictions and 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.680 solidarity with oppressed people globally, he sailed over to Europe 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.320 on the Queen Mary and April nineteen thirty seven, arriving 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.120 in Spain and around May and he joined the International 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.080 Brigades and was assigned to the International Auto Park in 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.960 Albaset as a chief mechanic, a crucial position given the 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.920 shortage of trained machinists in Spain at the time. 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.160 So he actually kind of was doing what the ads said, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.640 you know what I mean, like more directly in a 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.280 military function. But yeah, that's cool because like Detroit is 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.200 like the center of automobiles, at least in the States 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:42.840 and probably on some level like one of the main 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:45.120 ones in the world. So you're like, yeah, I'm fucking 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.520 showing up from the fucking Detroit Union to come fix 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.720 the anti fascist cars. That's like, that's kind of cool. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.120 And then immediately became the head mechanic, and also part 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.960 of that was because he spoke fluent Spanish, which enabled 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.880 him to teach engine repair to young Spaniards, and his 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.280 off hours demanding a commitment to not just the war efforts, 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.400 but education and solidarity, so he was keeping it running. 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.680 He eventually got injured, as everyone in a war front 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:14.720 has the possibility of doing no matter where you are, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:16.680 whether you have the gun in your hand or you 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.160 have the wrench in your hand. Also, he was transferred 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:25.760 around different hospitals, recommended for rest and reassignment to auxiliary services, 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.280 and then eventually moved to Barcelona and thirty eight and 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.000 requested repatriation for medical treatment, and then returned to the US. 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:38.320 I believe he eventually left again the US because shit 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.000 was hectic, But he is definitely a story of someone 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.200 who survived the war and went on to go and 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:44.840 still do so much more. 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:46.480 And that's something. 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:51.800 With all of these people, I am giving the loosest introductions. 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.640 And then another black anti fascist I want to talk 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.080 about is Edward Carter, who was born in nineteen sixteen 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:03.640 Los Angeles, but he grew up all over the world, India, Shanghai, 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.760 and the US. His parents were missionaries, and from early 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.680 on he saw colonialism and racism firsthand. He spoke four 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:14.879 different languages, Hindi, English, Mandarin, and German, and even as 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.680 a teenager, he knew his life would be about fighting injustice. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:19.439 By the time he was a young man, he had 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:22.800 already joined the fight against fascism, not in Europe but 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.520 in Asia. He fought alongside Chinese forces resisting Japanese invasion 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.360 during the nineteen thirties. But Carter wasn't done. When fascism 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.240 rose in Europe. He knew he had to do more. 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.159 He was strong, smart, and seasoned in battle, and Spain 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.440 wasn't just another war for him. There was a global 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.119 fight in the fight for freedom and for black people, 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.320 working people, and oppressed people everywhere. He also ended up 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.600 going past Spain into World War Two, and despite his 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:54.159 experience in fighting against the Japanese and fighting in Spanish 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.480 Civil War, the US military tried to keep Carter out 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:00.480 because of one racism and two he had fought in Spain, 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:02.680 which was an issue for a lot of Spanish anti 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.000 fascist who then went to go fight in World War 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.000 Two was that they were seen as too radical. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:10.239 Wait, have you have you heard the word that they 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:16.879 got called. No, they're called premature anti fascists, like you 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.280 were anti fascist too early, you can't be trusted. 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:22.480 And it's it's so weird to me that that was 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.719 actually used as a pejorative, and it's yeah, it's yeah, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.080 not as weird to me because I'm like, the US 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.280 was never really anti fascist, even when we joined World 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:35.400 War Two. It's because our territory got bombed and then 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:39.720 we decided to recognize Hawaii as a state, Like then afterwards. 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:41.960 It became more of a big thing. Yeah. Yeah. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:43.800 He ended up going into the World War Two, though 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:47.040 still in a segregated unit, the twelfth Armored Division, and 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.960 fighting in Europe, and he became a legend. During the 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.560 battle in Germany, Carter crossed open ground under heavy enemy 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:57.200 fire and he was hit five times but kept moving. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.199 He killed six German soldiers and captured two more. Were 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.679 almost single handedly. Always got to have solidarity, and his 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.080 commanders knew that he deserved the Medal of Honor, the 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.280 highest US military award, but because he was black, he 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.320 was denied. Instead, they gave him the Distinguished Service Cross 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:15.240 and pushed him out of the army after the war. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:16.360 Oh my god. 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.680 Yeah, he died sixty three and was never recognizing this 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:23.440 time by the military. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:23.840 Or any institution. 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:28.320 But decades later, you know, first black President Bill Clinton 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.399 had to come up and be like ward him the 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.720 Medal of Honor and the America's highest military award, and 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.960 like made him the first black soldier, like I think 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:44.520 technically to receive it, but one of the first, which yeah, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.480 it's one of those those crazy, crazy things. 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:49.080 And I'm just like, okay, but do you know what 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.359 he didn't get where she probably was inundated by ads, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.439 you know what he did get much like you, we 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.320 have something in common with that man. We too have 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.200 a chance to have a little taste of American freedom 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:08.320 by getting our choice of well, we actually don't have 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:08.800 our choice. 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:09.600 In our ads. I don't know. 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.600 There's some ads gonna come now and they're going to 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:12.200 be there. 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:20.560 And we're back. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:27.760 Hello, Yay, we're back, and we're still in Spain. 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:28.679 Back to Spain. 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.800 And then there was James Yeates, who I used heavily 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.200 to quote and put a lot of context and emotional 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.240 context for this piece here. He came in and immediately 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:43.679 joined the Motor Corps. He transported food and medicine to 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.040 the front lines under fire. What was interesting about him 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.120 is he started doing food delivery under the Thalman Brigade, 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.240 which was the German Brigade at the time, and. 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.399 The German Anti fascist Internationalist Brigade. 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:57.399 Yeah, German anti fascist Brigade, and he was kind of 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:59.560 salty about it at first. He was like, I wanted 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.439 to be with Americans, mainly because I can't speak German 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.119 and this is really stressful in a war situation wherever 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.919 like go here, do this, and I'm like uh. But 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:16.720 then eventually he ended up also serving as a ambulance driver, 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.600 which was so vital, like they would drive into war 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.919 torn places as things were happening, get folks in and 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.040 bring them back to the medical station while bullets were 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.800 still flying around and all that stuff. Yates ended up 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:36.720