Milton Herndon

Milton Herndon (March 9, 1908 – October 13, 1937) was an African-American U.S. national guardsman, steelworker, labor organizer and volunteer in the Spanish Civil War where he was section leader of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion in the Abraham Lincoln brigade. He was killed in action along with his entire machine gun company while supporting their advance into Fuentes de Ebro, a small town southeast of Zaragoza.

Early life and career Milton Herndon was born into a working-class family in a majority white village north of Cincinnati called Wyoming, Ohio, where they were subjected to racial discrimination. His father Paul Herndon was a coal miner who died of black lung disease when Milton was a child, and his mother Hattie Herndon was a housemaid for white families. Due to his former military experience, Herndon became section leader. On October 13, Herndon received an order to position a machine gun to support his Battalion's advance into the town. While executing this command, Herndon and his entire team were killed by a hail of long-range machine gun fire. The battalion as a whole suffered heavy losses during the attack and were unsuccessful in taking the town.