Milton Herndon was the older brother, and champion during his incarceration, of 1930s political prisoner Angelo Herndon. Born in 1909 to a Ohio mining family, Milton shared Angelo’s hardscrabble, proud proletarian background. Later to move Detroit and than to Chicago to work in steel, Milton joined the Communist Party in 1934. A veteran of the National Guard, he volunteered to fight fascism in Spain, leaving in early May, 1937. Made commander of the ‘Frederick Douglass Machine Gun Company’, he was killed on October 13, 1937, with nearly his entire unit, while assaulting the fascist-held village of Fuentes de Ebro.

‘Milton Herndon Killed In Action at Saragossa’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 14 No. 251. October 20, 1937.

Brother of Angelo Is Third Negro to Die in Spain Fighting

Milton Herndon, Negro section commander of a machine gun company of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion and brother of Angelo Herndon, was killed in action against fascist troops on the Saragossa front in Spain last Saturday.

A brief wireless message from Loyalist Spain, made public yesterday by the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln, Brigade, 125 W. 45th St., said that the brother of the famous Negro youth leader fell while fighting at the front against General Francisco Franco’s fascist legions.

A member of the Young Communist League, of which Angelo is the national chairman, Milton, 29, went to Spain six months ago to join the International Brigade, composed of anti-fascists of all countries. He was soon made section leader of the Frederick Douglass machine gun company and was active in many engagements at the front.

He is survived by his mother, Harriet Herndon of Detroit, two sisters and five brothers.

SHOWS ROLE OF NEGROES

Learning that his brother died fighting for democratic Spain, Angelo Herndon said the fact that Milton fell in Spain is “significant” in that it shows that Negroes are playing an important role in the world struggle against fascism.

“My brother’s death is significant,” Herndon said, “because it shows that the Negro people are realizing more and more that only through uniting with the whole of the progressive people can they win their own freedom from Jim Crowism and lynch terror.

“He, like other Negroes who have gone to Spain, are helping to write a glorious chapter in the struggle for human progress.

“Such valiant fighters, the Lincolns and Douglases of 1937, will certainly be recorded in history as new pioneers in the fight for human freedom.”

THIRD NEGRO TO DIE

Milton Herndon was the third American Negro member of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion to be killed in action. The other two were Alonzo Watson, killed on the Jarama front on Feb. 15, and Oliver Law of the Tom Mooney machine gun company, killed at Brunete last July.

Other Negroes who distinguished themselves as soldiers in Spain’s anti-fascist army are:

Lieut. Walter Garland, wounded twice in action.

Harry Haywood, Chicago, political commander of the Lincoln Battalion.

Douglas Roach, worker from Provincetown, Mass., wounded in action.

Members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion who have returned to America report that 40 per cent of the 100 American Negroes who have joined the brigade in Spain have received officers’ commissions.

LAST LETTER

Milton Herndon, while he was at the front, always followed with eager interest the struggles for civil rights in America. The last letter he sent to the United States was addressed to Anna Damon, secretary of the International Labor Defense, and greeted the I.L.D. for its successful fight which resulted in freeing four of the nine Scottsboro boys.

“Yesterday,” the letter said, “we, members of the Frederick Douglass machine gun company, had a meeting and explained to our Spanish comrades the importance of joining the American I.L.D. in its fight for the freedom of the remaining Scottsboro boys. One of them remarked in broken English: When we get through with Franco, we will go back to the states with you and help drive the anti-democratic forces out of your country.” As an afterthought he wrote the following post script:

“Fascist planes just flew overhead and dropped some bombs.”

STEEL WORKER

Young Herndon, who was a steel worker in Detroit and Chicago, became active in the labor movement in 1935. He was arrested while picketing the Empire Cafeteria, 125 Lenox Ave., where the food workers had declared a strike that year. Later he joined the Young Communist League and was active speaking in defense of his brother, Angelo, whose 20-year sentence for leading an unemployed demonstration in Atlanta, Ga., in 1932 was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court during its last session

Memorial for Milton Herndon Next Sunday. Movember 24, 1937.

Brother of Negro Leader Died at the Front in Spain

(Daily Worker Harlem Bureau) A memorial meeting for Milton Herndon, brother of the heroic Angelo, will be held at the St. James Presbyterian Church, 141st St. and St. Nicholas Ave., Sunday, Nov. 28, at 3:30 P.M., it was announced yesterday by the Milton Herndon Memorial Committee.

Praised by his comrades and friends as one of the “staunchest enemies of fascism,” young Milton Herndon was killed in action on the Saragossa front in Spain during October. He was widely known among Harlem workers for his militant action on picket lines, in the Scottsboro struggle, in cultural work, and in the struggle for the freedom of his brother, Angelo.

TO DEFEAT TIDE OF FASCISM

William L. Patterson, Negro Communist leader, in issuing a statement for the Milton Herndon Memorial Committee, declared:

“We are urging all Harlem to attend this memorial meeting and pay tribute to one of the bravest sons of the Negro people.

“But we believe that the most fitting memorial we can give to Milton is by striving together to defeat the rising tide of fascism!” The Young Communist League of America, of which Milton was a member, issued the following statement:

“The National Resident Board of the Young Communist League, U.S.A., together with our whole membership, deeply mourn the death of the brother of Angelo Herndon, who died in action on the battle fields of Spain. To Angelo and his family we extend our deepest sympathy.

PLEDGE RECRUITING

“At the same time we mourn the loss of young Milton Herndon, we pledge with all our hearts to fill the place left vacant in the ranks of our League by tens of thousands of new members.

“Milton, like Angelo, has shown an example of how to fight for the freedom and equality of the Negro people, at home and abroad. We are determined, by the sacrifice made by Milton and all others who have given their lives for democracy, never to stop until fascism is crushed throughout the world. To this end we pledge our lives.

“We call upon all members and friends to join us at the Milton Her Memorial Meeting.”

The statement was signed by Carl Ross, executive secretary of the Young Communist League of America, and Henry Winston, administrative secretary of the Young Communist League of America.

MANY INVITED

The Milton Herndon Memorial Committee has sent out hundreds of letters to organizations in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx inviting them to send contingents of their membership to attend the memorial services.

Among those who will officiate are the Rev. William Lloyd Imes, of the American League Against War and Fascism; Capt. A.L. King, president of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; Timothy Holmes, assistant educational director of the New York State Communist Party; and Harry Heywood, former political commander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion in Spain.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

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