When Langston Hughes Went to Report on theSpanish Civil War
- Feb 24, 2020
- 1 min read
By Jason Miller
From Literary Hub
Canceling a 60-day tour through Russia that he was slated to lead, Langston Hughes left to cover the Spanish Civil War on June 30th, 1937. The Baltimore Afro-American newspaper sent him abroad to write “trench-coat prose” about black Americans volunteering in the International Brigades with articles being picked up by other news outlets such as Cleveland’s Call-post and Globe magazine.
Hughes’s 22 articles covered an angle no one else in the world was focused on as companies such as the Abraham Lincoln and Washington Brigades were not only integrated but featured Negro commanders leading white troops, “a policy then unheard of in the US Army.” Overcoming outright denials by the US State Department, Hughes struggled to enter Spain in early August, finally securing press credentials through French means.
