a letter from canute frankson

“All we have to do is to think of the lynching of our people."
It was easy for blacks to see why they should care about the Spanish Civil War when they think about the horrors they had been subjected to even after gaining their "freedom" in the United States. 

"We can but look back at the pages of American history stained with the blood of Negroes; stink with the burning bodies of our people hanging from trees, bitter with the groans of our tortured loved ones from whose living bodies ears fingers toes have been cut for souvenirs - living bodies into which red-hot pokers have been thrust."
Frankson was among many African American ALB Volunteers who expressed fears in letters written at the time and later interviews that if the fascists were not stopped in Europe, the war would spread to America next and they would surely exterminate African Americans, just as they were trying to do to Jews.Wanting to end such atrocities, African Americans were eager to help fight fascism in Spain.

"All because of a hate created in the minds of men and women by their masters who keep us all under their heels while they suck our blood, while they live in their bed of ease by exploiting us."
Here, Frankson expresses a contempt for the ruling class - perhaps whites, but in the context of all that is known about him, he is more likely talking about the bourgeoisie.


"But these people who howl like hungry wolves for our blood, must we hate them? Must we keep the flame which these masters kindled constantly fed?"
Frankson expresses pacifism, which is a hallmark of Communist ideology.

"Are these men and women responsible for the programs of their masters, and the conditions which force them to such degraded depths?"
Frankson does not believe it is the people who are to blame, he believes it is a failing of the system that causes the hatred and racism that blacks face in America, similar to what the republicans faced in Spain.

"These same people are as hungry as we are. They live in dives and wear rags the same as we do."
Frankson expresses that he believes all Americans are ideologically confused because they are stifled under the struggle of society as it was after World War I and the Great Depression.

"They, too, are robbed by the masters, and their faces kept down in the filth of a decayed system."
 This is an illusion to hatred of American capitalism and the want of communist revolution in America. Frankson was a known member of the Communist Party.

"They are our fellow men. Soon, and very soon, they and we will understand."
Central to Communist theory was the idea that all men are equal.

"Soon, many Angelo Herndons will rise from among them, and from among us, and will lead us both against those who live by the stench of our burnt flesh." 
Angelo Herndon was a black labor organiser who was jailed for trying to unite both white and black members of the proletariat in a social revolution.

"We will crush them."
 Frankson advocates a revolution against the capitalist society in America.

"We will build us a new society - a society of peace and plenty."
In Communist society, everyone would work alongside one another and no one would struggle with poverty or having too little.

"There will be no colour line, no jim-crow trains, no lynching."
In a communist society, all are equal, including whites and coloreds, the most segregated groups in society.


"That is why, my dear, I’m here in Spain.”
Because Spain wanted a communist revolution, Frankson believed American laborers must help them fight for it, so that eventually America may follow suit.