Charles Frank Foster was born on September 18, 1900, at home in the tenement at 448 West 54 St, Manhattan, NYC, to a pair of Afro-Caribbean immigrants from the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands). He was the youngest of five children, with two brothers and two sisters, along with at least two siblings who were dead by the time of his birth. His father, William E. Foster, was recorded in his birth certificate as being a railroad man.
Charles Frank Foster would likely have attended a public school in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood where he grew up, and would likely not have gotten a full 12-grade education, instead likely entering the job market at or near the minimum age of 14. His work as a printer and as a mechanic suggests that he must have received a decent education and likely spent some time as an apprentice, which would have provided him with additional vocational training.
Around 1935, Charles Frank Foster joined the Communist Party of the USA, likely as part of its major rise in popularity at the time. As a member of the party, he eventually became a unit organizer, likely running a small party club. During this time, he lived at 506 East 13th Street and worked as a printer and a mechanic. Printers and mechanics were two professions that had strong union ties, and as such, he would have been one of many in his neighborhood. Party clubs were a key structure in the organization of the CPUSA of the time, as they organized community defence, strikes, and mutual aid for the unemployed, all of which were extremely important for working-class African Americans during the great depression.
In 1937, at the age of 36, Charles Frank Foster joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, sailing out on the SS Normandie on March 18. The SS Normandie was one of the largest and fastest ocean liners of the time, and was a popular choice for volunteers, with even Ernest Hemingway once taking it. He would likely have disembarked at the SS Normandie’s home port of Le Havre within the week, before taking a long route to Spain, arriving there only by April 2.
Once in Spain, Charles Frank Foster joined one of the transport units of the 15th International Brigade (The Abraham Lincoln Brigade). It is quite likely that he chose to serve in transport due to his prior work as a mechanic. Another major reason may have been his age, as, being almost 37, he was almost a decade older than the average age of US volunteers.
Transport units did not usually face the same danger that frontline units did, but they had their own problems. There was a constant lack of parts for vehicles, forcing the XV Brigade Auto Park and other groups to create a variety of replacement parts out of things like food cans. Despite these chronic shortages, the transport units had to continue to work at all times, sometimes pulling 40+ hour shifts to support offensives at places like Brunete. As a transport man, Charles Frank Foster would likely have been near most, if not all, the major engagements of the Lincoln Brigade during his time in Spain, providing maintenance for the supply chain that enabled those battles, but rarely ending up on the frontlines.
While serving in the brigades, he and 18 or so of his comrades, signed the “Declaration of the American Negro Comrades”, which proclaimed that “Cuando nosotros luchamos por la independencia y la libertad de españa, con miles otros de la internacional, continuamos la tradicion revolucionaria de 1776, luchando codo con codo con nuestros hermanos blancos...y otra vez hemos luchado por la libertad nuestra en el año 1865...
Atravez de muchos años nosotros continuamos luchando por la completa liberacion. Con la guia del partido comunista nosotros creemos con toda nuestra energía, la libertad de nuestra raza, y la liberación de toda la clase obrera.” This text indicates that they were dedicated followers of the communist party, declaring that by giving the party all their energy they would achieve liberation of their race and of all classes, but also ties their struggle back to both the revolutionary traditions of the American Revolution and the US Civil War. This shows the degree to which, for Charles Frank Foster and the other 90 or so African American volunteers, the Spanish Civil War was connected to racial struggle at home, not just class struggle.
In December 1938, with the disbanding of the International Brigades, Charles Frank Foster and a number of other volunteers returned to Le Havre, where they took the RMS Ausonia back to NYC, arriving on December 20.
A few years later, on February 12, 1942, with the US now in WWII, Charles Frank Foster registered for the draft. On December 2, 1942, he was drafted, becoming a Private in the US Army. After the war, on May 21, 1948, he married Alberta Ryland, and spent a majority of the rest of his life working as a USPS clerk before retiring and eventually dying in the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester on the 28th of December, 1987. Charles Frank Foster was cremated and is now buried at Lot 323, Magnolia Ave in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. His wife died in 1992, and her cremated remains now lie in the same lot.
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. “Charles Frank Foster.” Volunteers. Accessed June 12, 2026. https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/charles-frank-foster/.
Anthony Geist, “The Lincoln Brigade: A Legacy of Racial Justice” The Volunteer, June 12, 2014, https://albavolunteer.org/2014/06/a-legacy-of-racial-justice/.
Chesler, Hy. "Keep ‘Em Rolling." The Volunteer for Liberty 2, no. 5 (February 12, 1938). Republished by Chris Brooks on The Volunteer (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives), April 12, 2018. https://albavolunteer.org/2018/04/14194/
Chris Brooks, “An Analysis of American and Canadian Volunteers Compiled by the International Brigades in Spain” The Volunteer, September 27, 2017, https://albavolunteer.org/2017/09/an-analysis-of-american-and-canadian-volunteers-compiled-by-the-international-brigades-in-spain/.
Chris Brooks, “List of African American Volunteers” The Volunteer, February 25, 2024, https://albavolunteer.org/2021/03/list-of-african-american-volunteers/.
"Declaration of the American Negro Comrades" and [Declaration continued with signatures of African-Americans], October 1938; International Brigades Archive, Moscow: Selected Images; ALBA.PHOTO.177; box 2; folder 197 (Physical Folder 23); items 177_197048 and 177_197049; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University, New York, NY (Original source: RGASPI, Moscow, Number: 5/197/48 and 5/197/49).
Manhattan Borough, New York, Certificate and Record of Birth no. 37701 (1900), Charles F. Foster; Historical Vital Records, NYC Department of Records & Information Services, New York City Municipal Archives, https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/1149454 (accessed June 12, 2026).
Town of Oak Bluffs. Cemetery Commission. Alpha List Burials. June 10, 2020. https://www.oakbluffsma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/4752/Alpha-List-Burials-6102020.
Vineyard Gazette. "Charles Foster, 87, Lived in Oak Bluffs." Obituary clipping, c. late December 1987 / early January 1988. Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), Facebook, September 18, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=713243494181329&set=pcb.713243534181325