1939 The Americas

The Americas

Canada

Little more than 20 years after the end of the “War to End all Wars,” the Second World War (1939–1945) erupted and soon spread across Europe and around the globe. The Second World War saw considerable growth in how Black Canadians served in the military. While some Black recruits would encounter resistance when trying to enlist in the army, in contrast to the First World War no segregated battalions were created. Indeed, several thousand Black men and women served during the bloodiest war the world has ever seen. Black Canadians joined regular units and served alongside their white fellow soldiers here at home, in England, and on the battlefields of Europe. Together they shared the same harsh experiences of war while fighting in places like Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

In the early years of the war, however, the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force were not as inclusive in their policies. This did not mean that trail-blazing Black Canadians did not find a way to persevere and serve. Some Black sailors served in the Navy, and Black airmen served in the Air Force as ground crew and aircrew here at home and overseas in Europe.

The contributions of Black servicemen was second to none and several earned decorations for their bravery. Some Black women joined the military as well, serving in support roles so that more men were available for the front lines.

And back on the home front, Black Canadians again made important contributions by working in factories that produced vehicles, weapons, ammunition and other materials for the war effort, and taking part in other patriotic efforts like war bond drives. For example, Black women in Nova Scotia worked in vital jobs in the shipbuilding industry, filling the shoes of the men who would usually do that work but who were away fighting in the war.

Many Black Veterans returned home after the war with a heightened awareness of the value of freedom and their right to be treated as equals after all they had done for Canada in their country’s time of need. The service of Black Canadians in the Second World War remains a point of pride and was a measure of how Black Canadians were becoming increasingly integrated into wider Canadian society.

Cuba

*The German ocean liner MS St. Louis departed Hamburg, Germany for Cuba with 936 passengers, mostly Jewish (May 13). The Cuban government had already canceled their landing certificates, but many passengers boarded the ship anyway hoping the Cubans would honor the certificates they had already obtained.

*The MS St. Louis reached Havana, Cuba, but only 22 passengers were allowed to disembark (May 27).

The MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner most notable for a single voyage in 1939, in which its captain, Gustav Schroder, tried to find homes for 908 Jewish refugees from Germany.  After they were denied entry to Cuba, Canada, and the United States, the refugees were finally accepted in various European countries, and historians have estimated that approximately a quarter of them died in death camps during World War II. The event was the subject of a 1974 book, Voyage of the Damned,  by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts.  It was adapted for a 1976 United States film of the same title and a 1994 opera titled "St. Louis Blues" by Chiel Meijering.

The St. Louis set sail from Hamburg to Cuba on May 13, 1939. The vessel under command of Captain Gustav Schroder was carrying 937 refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution. Captain Schröder, was a non-Jewish German who went to great lengths to ensure dignified treatment for his passengers.

The journey to Cuba was a joyous affair. The passengers aboard the St. Louis were treated with contempt before they boarded, but once on the ship they were treated like privileged tourists. Crew members treated the passengers well. Captain Schröder insisted on this. Elegantly clad stewards served foods that by 1939 were rationed in Germany. There was a full-time nursemaid to care for small children when their parents sat to eat. There were dances and concerts, and the captain allowed passengers to hold Friday evening religious services in the dining room and even permitted them to throw a tablecloth over a plaster bust of Hitler that sat there. Children were given swimming lessons in the on-deck pool. Passengers felt that they were on a vacation cruise to freedom.

The ship dropped anchor at 04:00 on May 27 at the far end of the Havana harbor and was denied entry to the usual docking areas. The next six days on the harbor were tumultuous times. The Cuban government, headed by President Federico Laredo Bru, refused to accept the foreign refugees. Although passengers had previously purchased legal visas, they could not enter Cuba either as tourists (laws related to tourist visas had recently been changed) or as refugees seeking political asylum. On May 5, 1939, four months before World War II began, Havana abandoned its former pragmatic immigration policy and instead issued Decree 937, which restricted entry of all foreigners except United States citizens possessing a bond of $500 and authorization by the Cuban secretaries of state and labor. Permits and visas issued before May 5 were invalidated retroactively." None of the passengers were aware that the Cuban government had retroactively invalidated their landing permits.

In the end, only 29 passengers were allowed to disembark in Cuba. Twenty-two of them were Jewish and had valid United States visas, the remaining six—four Spanish citizens and two Cuban nationals—had valid entry documents. Another passenger, after attempting to commit suicide, was evacuated to a hospital in Havana.

American officials Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, and Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury had made some efforts to persuade Cuba to accept the refugees. Their actions, together with efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, were not successful.

Prohibited from landing in Cuba, Captain Schröder circled off the coast of Florida, hoping for permission to enter the United States.  Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, advised Roosevelt not to accept the Jews, however. Captain Schroder considered running aground along the coast to allow the refugees to escape, but, acting on Cordell Hull's instructions, United States Coast Guard vessels shadowed the ship and prevented such a move.

After the St. Louis was turned away from the United States, a group of academics and clergy in Canada tried to persuade Canada's Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, to provide sanctuary to the ship's passengers, as it was only two days from Halifax, Nova Scotia. But Canadian immigration official Frederick Blair, hostile to Jewish immigration, persuaded the Prime Minister on June 9 not to intervene. In 2000, Blair's nephew apologized to the Jewish people for his uncle's action.  

After the war, Captain Gustav Schröder was awarded the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany.  In 1993, Schröder was posthumously named as one of the Righteous among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel. A display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum tells the story of the voyage of the MS St. Louis. The Hamburg Museum features a display and a video about the St. Louis in its exhibits about the history of shipping in the city. In 2009, a special exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia entitled "Ship of Fate" explored the Canadian connection to the tragic voyage. 

In 2011, a memorial monument called the Wheel of Conscience, was produced by the Canadian Jewish Congress, designed by Daniel Libeskind with graphic design by David Berman and Trevor Johnston. The memorial is a polished stainless steel wheel. Symbolizing the policies that turned away more than 900 Jewish refugees, the wheel incorporates four inter-meshing gears each showing a word to represent factors of exclusion: anti-semitism, xenophobia, racism, and hatred.
 The back of the memorial is inscribed with the passenger list. It was first exhibited in 2011 at Pier 21, Canada's national immigration museum in Halifax.

The MS St. Louis was adapted as a German naval accommodation ship from 1940 to 1944. She was heavily damaged by the Allied bombings at Kiel on August 30, 1944, but was repaired and used as a hotel ship in Hamburg in 1946. She was later sold and was scrapped in 1952.

*****

*Cuban President Federico Laredo Bru ordered the Ms St. Louis to leave Cuban waters and threatened to use gunboats if it did not do so (June 1).

*The MS St. Louis left Havana (June 2).

*The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame was inaugurated, six weeks after its American counterpart (July 26).

The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame (Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Cubano) is a hall of fame that honors eminent baseball players from Cuban baseball. Established in 1939 to honor players, managers, and umpires in the pre-revolution Cuban League.  By 1961 it had honored 68 players, managers, and umpires whose names are shown on a marble plaque at Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano. After the revolution, however, the Hall of Fame languished for more than 50 years, seldom mentioned or acknowledged and with no new inductees. Following a campaign led by Cuban filmmaker Ian Padron,  a meeting was held on November 7–8, 2014 to reformulate the Hall of Fame and to propose a museum in which it would be housed. The reformulated Hall recognized the original 68 members, and a jury of 25 people selected 10 new inductees — five from the pre-revolution period and five representing for the first time the post-revolution Cuban National Series. The planned site for the new museum is in the José Antonio Echeverría Workers' Social Club (also known as the Vedado Tennis Club).

The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame was established by the DGND (Dirección General Nacional de Deportes), a government agency supervising sports activities in Cuba. The hall was inaugurated on July 26, 1939 — about six weeks after the June 12 dedication and opening of the United States National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown — by placing a bronze plaque at Havana's La Tropical Stadium.  The first ten inductees were selected by former and current baseball writers and the DGND's baseball advisers (asesores de baseball). The inaugural class included 19th-century Cuban stars (Antonio Maria Garcia, Valentin Gonzalez, Adolfo Lujan, and Carlos Royer), black players who had achieved success in the United States Negro leagues (Luis Bustamante, Jose de la Caridad Mendez, Gervasio Gonzalez, and Cristobal Torriente), and white players who had played Major League Baseball (Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans).  Méndez and Torriente, along with later inductee Martin Dihigo, subsequently were also recognized by the United States Hall of Fame.

The bronze plaque was subsequently replaced by a marble plaque that hangs on a wall "in a poorly lit corner" of Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano. Before listing the names of the inductees, the introductory section of the plaque reads,

Cuban Professional Baseball Hall of Fame

List of players that have been selected as

BASEBALL IMMORTALS

And have deserved this just recognition for their distinguished work

maintaining an undying memory of what they were in this

sport

While all of the inductees were recognized as baseball players, in several cases their distinction reflected, at least in part, accomplishments achieved after their playing careers. For example, Emilio Sabourín, Agustin Molina, and Jose Rodriguez were long-time managers who won championships, as also were more celebrated players such as Dihigo, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Adolfo Luque, and Armando Marsans. Francisco A. Poyo and Eustaquio Gutiérrez served as umpires. Carlos Zaldo, Eugenio Jiménez, and Molina entered the business side of baseball as stadium developer, promoter, and league administrator. Wenceslao Gálvez wrote a history of baseball in Cuba, published in 1889, which may very well be the first history of the game ever written anywhere.

Other inductees achieved distinction outside of baseball. For example, Juan Antiga, who played in the Cuban League for just two seasons prior to completing medical school, became a notable intellectual, homeopath, government official, and diplomat, serving as ambassador to Switzerland and a delegate to the League of Nations. The type of post-playing distinction most often recognized by the hall, however, is military service, especially during the Cuban War of Independence that was fought from 1895 to 1898. Alfredo Arango, Eduardo Machado, and Carlos Maciá served as officers in the Cuban revolutionary army and Sabourín, Juan Manuel Pastoriza, and Ricardo Cabaleiro died in the conflict.

In the 20th century, opportunities to play in the United States became increasingly important to Cuban players. Some of the earliest opportunities to play in the United States came in nearby Key West beginning about 1890. Key West had an independent baseball league with considerable participation by Cuban emigrants, and Cuban League players were recruited to play there during the off season. Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Molina and Poyo began their baseball careers in Key West before moving on to the Cuban League. In 1899, a Cuban all-star team, the All Cubans, undertook their first barnstorming tour of the United States. The team, which was racially integrated (reflecting the racial integration of the Cuban League) played against professional and semi-professional teams, white and black, until 1905.

However, the United States color line soon affected Cuban players. By 1904, white Cubans, such as Juan Viola, were playing in the minor leagues, and 1911 Rafael Almeida and Armando Marsans broke into the majors with the Cincinnati Reds.  Meanwhile, Cubans with darker complexions played in the Negro leagues for teams such as the Cuban Stars (West), the Cuban Stars (East), and the New York Cubans.  Some Cuban players moved on to success with United States teams, such as Jose Mendez with the Kansas City Monarchs and Cristobal Torriente with the Chicago American Giants. 

After the closing of the Cuban League in 1961, inductions to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame ceased in Havana for more than five decades. The players who had migrated to the United States, however, formed an organization, the Federation of Professional Cuban Baseball Players in Exile (Federación de Peloteros Profesionales Cubanos en el Exilio) which held elections in Miami to add new members to the hall. These additional members are not universally recognized and they are not recognized in Cuba, nor are they included in lists of Hall of Fame inductees shown in reference books by historians. The Miami elections continued in three phases—1962 through 1986, 1997 through 1998, and 2007—ultimately declaring more than 200 additional individuals as inductees.

In August 2014, Cuban filmmaker and baseball fan Ian Padrón brought together a group of 12 prominent fans to create a group called Enthusiasts for the Refoundation of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame. The group developed a set of rules to govern a reformulated hall which would recognize the 68 original members, provide for regular elections of additional professional and amateur players from both the pre-revolution and post-revolution periods, and would help arrange for the hall to be part of a Cuban baseball museum. With support from the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER), a meeting of sports commentators was held on November 7–8, 2014. The meeting approved the draft rules, selected a jury of 25 people to select the inductees, and planned for subsequent annual elections. Four players and an umpire were honored from the pre-revolution era — Conrado (Connie) Marrero, Orestes (Minnie) Minoso, Camilo Pascual, Esteban (Steve) Bellan, and umpire Amado Maestri.  Five players were also honored from the post-revolution era, the first players from that period to be recognized -- Omar Linares, Orestes Kindelan, Antonio Munoz, Luis Casanova, and Braudilio Vinent.

Mexico

*Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican artist, was born in La Soledad de Maciel, Guerrero, Mexico (March 21).

Leonel Maciel, an African Mexican artist and member of the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana, from the coast of the state of Guerrero, was born on March 21, 1939. Although from a rural area and farming family, he studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabaco "La Esmeralda" and has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, which has influenced his work. His art has changed styles from generally contains multiple elements and saturated colors.

Maciel was born in the small village of La Soledad de Maciel, located in the municipality of Petatlan, Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast.  He was born to a farm working family, in a palapa near the ocean. His family is of mixed African, Asian and indigenous roots, not uncommon for that region, the Costa Grande of Guerrero. He is a tall thin man, from family of tall people, stating that his great-grandparents were two meters tall or taller. One of these was Margarita Romero, called Negra Margarita who was African-indigenous ethnicity.

Maciel spent his early childhood on beaches and among mangroves. He began to draw and paint early, with his father encouraging him even though the region does not have a strong artistic tradition. His father also taught him to appreciate literature and he became fond of Hispanic-American literature and authors such as Alejo Carpentier, Pablo Neruda and Miguel Angel Asturias, which affected his artistry.

Maciel attended primary school for four years and at age ten went to Mexico City where he attended more classes up to high school but he did not study art although he had been drawing since he was a young child. Instead he worked odd jobs and sold some works that he drew or painted. These came to the attention of the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda". He received a scholarship, studying there from 1958 to 1962.

Maciel believed that it is necessary for artists to see as much of the world as possible and be exposed to the work of other artists. His first journeys outside of Mexico included New York and Iceland, where he experienced an aurora borealis. He also spent three years in Europe, but did not use the time to visit museums and other artists. In 1995, he made an eight month journey through Asia in countries such as India, Bali, Thailand, China and Malaysia as well as the various Pacific islands. Elements of what he saw during this trip were then included into his work.

In 2007 Maciel worked on a project to document the cuisine of his native region which inspired a number of paintings.

Maciel lived in Tepoztlan from the 1980s into the 1990s when he began living in his native Guerrero state.

Maciel has had over forty individual and collective exhibitions of his work in countries such as Brazil, France, the United States and Portugal as well as Mexico. His first individual exhibition was as the Galería Excélsior in 1964.  His important collective exhibitions include “Art-Expo” in New York, Erótica ’82 at the Galería José Clemente Orozco and Contemporary Mexican Painters at the Picasso Museum in Antibes, France. He participated in the Myth and Magic of Latin America Biennal in Rio de Janeiro in 1979. Recognitions for Maciel's work include membership in the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, retrospectives at the Museo del Carmen in Mexico City (2001) and the Museo de la Ciudad de México (2003) . In 2007 his home municipality had a ceremony to honor him.

Trinidad

*Rudolph Walker, a Trinidadian actor best known for his roles on British television, was born in San Juan, Trinidad (September 28).

Rudolph Walker,  (b. September 28, 1939, San Juan, Trinidad) was the first black actor to appear in a major British television series, his breakthrough role as Bill in the 1970s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour (co-starring fellow Trinidadian Nina Baden-Semper) leading to a long and varied acting career. 

Rudolph Malcolm Walker was born in San Juan, Trinidad, and began acting as an eight-year-old in primary school, going on to join Derek Walcott's Trinidad Theatre Workshop as its youngest member. With the aim of furthering his career he left the island at the age of 20 in 1960. He had been planning to go the United States, where he had connections, but actor Errol John — who had already migrated to Britain but was in Trinidad doing a play — convinced him to go to the United Kingdom, where the training was superior.

Walker's first major television role was as a policeman in the British drama The Wednesday Play, in the episode entitled "Fable" (aired 27 January 1965). He is known for his comedic roles in Love Thy Neighbour (Thames Television),  The Thin Blue Line, which starred Rowan Atkinson, and in Ali G Indahouse.  He also appeared in Doctor Who, in the 1969 serial The War Games.  He was one of the first black actors to be seen regularly on British television, in his role on the controversial Love Thy Neighbour, which ran for seven series, from 1972 to 1976.

Walker also appeared in the first episode of On the Buses, "The Early Shift" (1969), and the first episode of Mr. Bean as "The Examiner" (1990). His other notable roles included as barrister Larry Scott in the 1985 BBC series Black Silk, by Mustapha Matura and Rudy Narayan.  

Beginning in 2001, he  played Patrick Trueman in the BBC One television soap opera EastEnders and in 2010 he appeared in the Internet spin-off series EastEnders: E20.  He also starred in a BBC One sitcom called The Crouches, about a family from Walworth, in South East London. He played the grandfather for all seasons (2003–05).

Although most of his work was on television, he also appeared in several movies, including 10 Rillington Place, King Ralph (along with his Love Thy Neighbour co-star, Jack Smethurst), and Let Him Have It.  On the stage, he appeared in the first production of Mustapha Matura's Play Mas at the Royal Court Theatre in 1974, and has played the titular character in stage productions of Shakespeare's Othello,  directed by David Thacker and Charles Marowitz, and also Caliban in a production of The Tempest directed by Jonathan Miller.  He was also  Gower in Thacker's 1989 production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

He also played opposite Diane Parish in Lovejoy (starring Ian McShane) where they played Father and Daughter.

Walker also lent his voice to the American dubbed version of the popular British children's television series Teletubbies, in which he re-narrated the opening and closing sequences.

Walker was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2006 for his services to drama. A biography for children about him, written by Verna Wilkins, was published by Tamarind Books on September 4, 2008.

On Walker's 70th birthday, he launched a new foundation, The Rudolph Walker Foundation, whose aims include helping to provide opportunities and incentives for disadvantaged youth starting out on an entertainment career. The Foundation administers Rudolph Walker's inter-School Drama Award (RWiSDA), competed for by schools across London. In addition, Rudolph Walker's Role Model Award (RWRMA) is presented to outstanding students who have contributed something special like demonstrating positive leadership, a good influence to their peers and others, and a role model within the school.

Europe

England

*Peter Abrahams left South Africa and went to London.

Peter Abrahams, in full Peter Henry Abrahams (b. March 3, 1919, Vrededorp, near Johannesburg, South Africa — d. January 18, 2017, Kingston, Jamaica), was one of the most prolific of South Africa’s black prose writers. His early novel Mine Boy (1946) was the first to depict the dehumanizing effect of racism upon South African blacks.

Abrahams was born in 1919 in Vrededorp, a suburb of Johannesburg, his father was from Ethiopia and his mother was Coloured. In 1939, Abrahams left South Africa, and worked first as a sailor, and then as a journalist in London.

While working in London, Abrahams lived with his wife Daphne in Loughton. He met several important black leaders and writers, including George Padmore, a leading figure in the Pan-African community there, Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, both later heads of state of their respective nations. In 1956, Abrahams published a roman a clef about the political community of which he had been a part in London: A Wreath for Udomo. His main character, Michael Udomo, who returns from London to his African country to preside over its transformation into an independent, industrial nation, appeared to be modelled chiefly on Nkrumah with a hint of Kenyatta. Other identifiable fictionalized figures included George Padmore, a Pan-Africanist author. The novel concluded with Udomo's murder. Published the year before Nkrumah took the reins of independent Ghana, A Wreath for Udomo was not an optimistic forecast of Africa's future.

Abrahams left South Africa at the age of 20, settling first in Britain and then in Jamaica; nevertheless, most of his novels and short stories are based on his early life in South Africa. Mine Boy, for example, tells of a country youth thrown into the alien and oppressive culture of a large South African industrial city. Abrahams’ semi-autobiographical Tell Freedom: Memories of Africa (1954; new ed. 1970) deals with the related theme of his struggles as a youth in the slums of Johannesburg. The Path of Thunder (1948) depicts a young “mixed” couple who love under the menacing shadow of enforced segregation. Wild Conquest (1950) follows the great northern trek of the Boers, and A Night of Their Own (1965) sets forth the plight of the Indian in South Africa. The novel A Wreath for Udomo (1956; new ed. 1971) and the travel book This Island Now (1966; new ed. 1971) are set in western Africa and the Caribbean, respectively. Abrahams' The View from Coyaba (1985) chronicles four generations of a Jamaican family and their experiences with racism. He also wrote the memoir The Coyaba Chronicles: Reflections on the Black Experience in the 20th Century (2000).

In the late 1950s, inspired by a visit to Jamaica, Abrahams moved his family to the island. There he became editor of the West Indian Economist and took charge of the daily radio news network, West Indian News, until 1964, when he gave up most of his duties so that he could devote himself full-time to writing. Many of his earlier works were reissued or translated into other languages in the 1960s and early ’70s, as his reading public steadily widened.

France

In September 1939, when France declared war on Germany in response to the invasion of Poland, Josephine Baker was recruited by Deuxieme Bureau, French military intelligence, as an "honorable correspondent". Baker collected what information she could about German troop locations from officials she met at parties. She specialized in gatherings at embassies and ministries, charming people as she had always done, while gathering information. Her café-society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and to report back what she heard. She attended parties at the Italian embassy without raising suspicions and gathered information.