THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 21, 1995 TAG: 9511210008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Contrasting dramatically with the current state of race relations in the United States is an account by Herbert Matthews (from The Civil War in Spain, edited by Robert Payne). Although written in 1937, this description offers some perspective and perhaps even some hope:
``And then there was Oliver Law, a Texas Negro, and commander of the Lincoln Battalion after Martin Hourihan was promoted to regimental commander. In the same action that Hourihan got his wounds, although a few days later, Law was killed. A Negro commander of 150 white men who were proud to serve under him - does not that convey something of the spirit of the Internationals? Law was in some sense the typical Negro radical. Sensitive and rebellious against the fate of his people in the South, he naturally drifted into the movement. First, however, he received military training in the American Army, which he joined in Texas after the World War (he was only about thirty-three when he was killed.)
``His service completed, he went to Chicago, where he was when this war started. In the interim, he had become a Communist and an important figure in Chicago's Negro world. A good businessman to boot, he owned a restaurant and other property, which he gave up to come to Spain. And here he died, leading his men in an attack. `We are here to show that Negroes know how to fight Fascists,' he said one day of himself and others of his race in the American battalions.''
If these old words were to inspire any one of us today, then the sacrifice and example of such an American as Oliver Law would be made even more meaningful.
RICHARD SALZBERG
Norfolk, Nov. 2, 1995 by CNB