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PORTSIDE CULTURE

SALARIA KEA  
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Peter Neil Carroll
February 1, 2024
Sketches From Spain: Homage to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
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_ The only African American woman to serve in the Spanish Civil War,
nurse Salaria Kea fought racism all of her life. _

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Salaria Kea

1913-1990

By Peter Neil Carroll

She stood out, the one African American woman

to serve in the Spanish Civil War, a nurse who

spoke her mind, fought racism, saved lives.

She’d been raised in Akron, Ohio, a segregated

society, black children banned from sports and

certain restaurants, seating at the movies.

_I accepted it. I thought that was the world. _

_I wasn’t in heaven, this was the earth. _

She studied nursing at Harlem Hospital,

dared protest northern-style Jim Crow,

once turning over a fully set “white table.”

When Ohio River flooded, she offered to

help the Red Cross. They replied the color

of her skin was more trouble than she was worth.

Why not Spain? a friend suggested. So Salaria

enlisted. What? someone asked, Spain, alone?

_I wasn’t born twins, _she said. _I have to go alone._

_Those were busy days. So much to do, so little _

_with which to do. _She did find time to fall in

love, an Irish patient named Reilly, married him

at Villa Paz hospital, where they survived

bombings and she brought him back to Ohio.

Peter Neil Carroll’s new collection of poetry, _Sketches from Spain:
Homage to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade_ (Main Street Rag Press, 2024)
draws mini-biographies of about 80 American volunteer anti-fascists
who fought against three dictators: Franco, Mussolini, Hitler.  

* Poetry
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* Salaria Kea
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* African Americans
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* Spanish Civil War
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