The Vernon Snow Center
Vernon Snow was killed in action at Fuentes de Ebro during a Nationalist air raid on October 18, 1937. Snow was serving in the Lincoln-Washington Transmissions section when he was killed. Pat Read his section leader recalled Snow as “a comrade with a loveable personality, calm courage and plenty of ability. (“A Life for Every Line We Laid,” Nuestro Combate, No. 34) Snow was an exceptional recruit for the International Brigades as he had military experience in both the National Guard and Naval Reserves and was an expert telegraph operator and telephone technician. Snow was also a leading member of the State Communist Party, serving on the Virginia State Committee. (Daily Worker, “Virginia Salutes”)
After his death the Virginia Communist Party established the Vernon Snow Center located at 301 North 1st Street, in Richmond, VA. An editorial by Mike Gold in the Daily Worker on April 25, 1938, noted that the center included a party “Bookshop, a Little Theater for progressive films and an auditorium, smaller meeting rooms, state offices of the Communist Party, recreation rooms, reading rooms and a circulating library.” The center was intended to be fully integrated “in line with the principles of the man to whom the center is dedicated.”
Today the site is boarded up and its history all but forgotten.
