Samuel Willis, one of the number of African-Americans to die fighting for the Spanish Republic. Born in Philadelphia, 1914, he worked as a communist party organizer, before coming to Spain in 1937 where he served first as a scout and later as a runner in the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. He was reported missing in action in the Belchite-Caspe area on March 17, 1938.
“About the treatment they received in Spain, the black brigade agree: although everywhere aroused the curiosity of the native population, were never treated differently from their white-skinned compatriots. Vaughn Love, a native of Chattanooga (Tennessee), relates that on one occasion a farmer offered him a handkerchief to wipe his face. When I explained that it was black, the peasant embraced him with these words: “Ah yes, the black slaves! We’re just a step away from being so.” Here