Research in Race and Ethnic Relations: Oliver Cox Vol 11 Book

A captivating, quick memoir about a Black Mississippian who moves north, gets involved in labor politics during the depression, and eventually joins the Abraham Lincoln brigade fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout the book, Yates' writing is direct and spare - almost tantalizingly so, as I could take another few chapters about his time in radical New York circles in the 30s, running into Paul Robeson and the like - but always compelling.

This book should absolutely be read alongside the more canonical Spanish Civil War fare - I'm thinking For Whom the Bell Tolls and Homage to Catalonia. Like Orwell, Yates conveys the electric (if ultimately fleeting) possibility of a multi-national, multi-racial leftist coalition and society. I feel like a lot has been written about the experience of Black soldiers returning from WWII to the same white supremacist country and experiencing violence meant to reconstitute the American racial order. That same dynamic is even more acute and infuriating for Yates, who did not experience the acute racism that existed in the US military at the time, but rather the camaraderie and potential of the International Brigades.

Similarly, though restrained, Yates conveys the romanticism of the struggle in Spain (and of Spain itself) as well as the desperate condition of the Republican cause in a manner similar to Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls. But whereas much of Hemingway's romanticism is often purely aesthetic and occasionally war-porny, Yates's writing provides the historical and political context that made the struggle in Spain so meaningful. Indeed, much more of the book is spent setting the stage and describing Yates' political/economic trajectory than it is in the trenches, whereas For Whom the Bell Tolls is essentially set in media res, stripped of much of the context for why the war is being waged in the first place.

Ultimately, of course, Yates's memoir is amazing not because it can be compared to these other works but because it is his own remarkable story, told in a straightforward yet detail-rich manner. There are major areas I wish he'd explored more - his relationship to his wife/family just falls out completely as soon as he leaves Chicago (to the extent it was there at all), his earliest entry into union organizing is somewhat glossed over, and his later involvement with the NAACP in New York is only teased. But at the same time, it's okay that the book is 200 pages and not 600, because Yates often does in one sentence what other writers would require three for. And hopefully its length makes it more accessible to the curious, because this should be read widely!