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Spanish quest to identify black soldier Buzz up!

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• US volunteer in picture killed in civil war battle
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Unidentified black soldier who died in the Spanish civil war Photograph: Agustí  Last 24 hours

Centelles/El País
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As a volunteer in the International Brigades that fought in Spain's civil comments)
war, the unidentified black soldier in the photograph was one of the first
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Americans to die fighting fascism. truck' (90)

Now Spanish authorities want to put a name to him so they can present 3. Cindy McCain endorses NOH8 gay marriage
his picture to President Barack Obama when he visits Spain next year. campaign (65)

4. Barack Obama battered by criticism as

The black and white picture of the African American volunteer forms part anniversary approaches (65)
of an extraordinary collection of civil war photographs that was bought
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recently by the Spanish state.

"All we know is that he arrived with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of

American volunteers and that he died in the battle at Brunete [in July
1937]," said Sergi Centelles, whose father, Agustí, took the picture.
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The soldier is one of more than 90 African-Americans who volunteered to
defend Spain's elected Republican government from a 1936 rightwing
Guardian Black History
military uprising that sparked a three-year civil war.
Wallcharts - Set of 5
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Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini sent troops to back charts printed on high
the rebel army of future dictator General Francisco Franco. Leftwing and quality paper.
anti-fascist volunteers from around the world joined Russians sent by From: £15.00
Stalin to help defend the Republic.
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Obama defended the concept of waging a "just war" in his Nobel peace
prize speech this month.

The New York-based Abraham Lincoln Brigades Association and New

York University's Tamiment library have scoured their civil war archives Most viewed on guardian.co.uk
to see if they could identify the man in the photograph, which was
probably taken in February 1937. Two possible candidates have 24 hours
emerged: Milton Herndon, whose brother Angelo won a famous supreme
court case against a sentence for "incitement to insurrection", and 1. Can Apple's tablet do it again?
aviator Paul Williams.
2. Africa Cup of Nations: Cameroon v Tunisia –
"It is one of eight or nine photographs my father took of the Americans live! | Paul Doyle
marching through Barcelona," said Agustí Centelles. 3. The rise of the SarcMark – oh, how brilliant
The photograph remained hidden for four decades after Agustí  4. Brothers stopped attack on boys because
Centelles, known as the "Spanish Robert Capa", fled Spain as Franco's their 'arms were aching'
forces looked set to win the civil war in 1939. 5. Thirty runners disqualified from Chinese
marathon for cheating
"My father took his photographs with him in a suitcase because he was
scared they would be used to identify people and carry out reprisals," More top stories

said Sergi Centelles.

7 days
The photographer used the suitcase as a pillow in a French refugee
camp to prevent it from being stolen. He later moved in with a French 1. Why men use prostitutes
family in Carcassonne, in southern France, but had to flee again after
2. Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth
the second world war broke out and the occupying Germans heard that
he was using his camera to take photographs for false passports. 3. South Africa v England - day two as it
happened | Andy Bull and Rob Smyth
"The Gestapo were chasing him, so he walked back across the Pyrenees
4. Tourist killed by 'dinosaur-sized' shark off
into Spain," said Sergi Centelles. "He left the suitcase behind, telling the South African beach
French family not to and it over to anyone but him.
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"It was passed down from the grandfather, when he died, to his son and United – as it happened | Scott Murray
then, when he also died, to the grandson." More top stories

Agustí Centelles sent the French family a present every Christmas as a 
sign that he was still alive.
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Spain did not give the photographer a passport until 1962, when the
family travelled to Carcasonne to check the suitcase was still there. It was
only in 1976, a year after Franco died, that he dared pick up the suitcase
and bring it home.

It contained hundreds of civil war photographs, including one of writer

George Orwell with a group of fellow international volunteers.

The mix of races in the International Brigades saw attempts made to Illustrated Children's Museum of Innocence
observe a degree of racial equality otherwise unseen in western armies Books £18.99 with free UK
in the 1930s. £24.95 with free UK delivery
delivery
"We know there were quite a few African American volunteers and that Browse the bestseller lists
many were treated badly when they went home, as people thought they Buy books from the Guardian Bookshop
were communists," said Sergi Centelles.

"We have four or five names of possible candidates, but what we really
want to do is to find their family." UK

• If you know who the man in the main photograph is, or can provide any
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information that might help identify him, please contact
giles.tremlett@guardian.co.uk
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