He was one of 12 siblings growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama and later moving to Columbus, Ohio. After returning from Spain, he continued to be politically active and aware founding the Vanguard League and fought for desegregation.
His archive attracted me because it also he is also described as a friend of Langston Hughes. Indeed his archive includes a couple of his poems, so when I open up his box, I go right for the L. Hughes folder. Besides the folders of correspondence, included are many WWII publications -"Infantry Day in the 92nd Division", "Barnacle: Journal of US Army Hospital Ship", and the "Military Review".
As a poetry aficionado, I'm rather giddy see the signed letter of Langston Hughes. His letter inhabit a similar tone that is recognizable in his poetry -quotidian, concise, rhythmic. He apparently sent two poems and a prose monologue to James "Bunny" Bernard, which I've never read before. I don't even not if they were ever published. In "Airplane Factories" from 5/25/41, Hughes expresses outrage that the US government doesn't allow colored people to work in airplane factories. "Simple in the United Nation" is a monologue of a man named Simple in front of the UN speaking of the human rights violations in the south (specifically Mississippi) that have gone uncheck for centuries. He begins, "The word Mississippi starts with M which stands for murder, which is what they have done down there to Negroes for years just for being colored." This piece seems very creative and experimental. The last is call "Too Bad --But True" it reflects a much less pacifistic philosophy in acquiring civil rights than that of the "passive reliance" embodied by MLK in the 60s. It finishes with the emphasis on the necessity to fight and not allow the status quo: "But nowadays you have to fight/If you want to be a man./ Understand?" This mentality is not really a call to arms but reflects the same mentality of those who volunteered and observed the fight against fascism in Spain.
It certainly is interesting to see the ways in which the volunteers and the non-volunteers associated with the cause continued their activism and effort both after the war for Spain and in entirely different--but conceptually related--fields. For example, so far in class we have learned how African-Americans, like Jews, found their circumstances very similar to the Spaniards under attack in Europe. As an extension of this, they fought for their own equality by participating in the fight against Franco and continued these aims into the Civil Rights Era.
ReplyDeleteOn another level, it is so cool to look through the Archives and see "cameos" from people who are more historically well-known (rightly or wrongly) then the Volunteers. I've seen a [copy] of a letter from Einstein, as well as mentions of Jackson Pollock, Hemingway (obviously), Hughes, and others.