Paul Robeson 1898-1976

PAUL ROBESON'S historical significance consists not only in who he was and what he stood for, but in what was done to him by the American government. Robeson, in his life and work, gave meaning to the term "people's artist." He devoted his enormous artistic talents to the struggle against racism, against the McCarthyite reaction, and against imperialism. His success in his chosen careers of professional sports, film and stage acting, and singing, did not cause him to forget that his success was unique--that the overwhelming majority of American blacks, and indeed the overwhelming majority of American workers, do not and cannot escape their destitute origins.

He fought for progressive ideals in nearly every battle, on nearly every front, for over two decades. Whether singing for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain, for union organizers and strikers all through the United States, or for Rosenberg sympathizers in New York City, Robeson lent his voice, his heart, and his intellect to forces combating repression wherever and whenever he could.

When victimized by the McCarthy era witch hunts, he stood tall before the House Un-American Activities Committee, defied their attempt to limit his constitutional rights, and mocked their pretensions to patriotism. To silence him, the government revoked his passport, branded him a subversive, and in effect forced him to leave the U.S. in order to gain employment. In short, the workings of American democracy were such that an internationally known artist and political activist was turned into an unperson in his own country.

Robeson's longstanding and ardent support of the Soviet Union, even during the outrages of the Stalinist period, show a tragic blindness to the true nature of the Soviet system, and perhaps a real lack of political sophistication. But to use this element in his career to condemn either Robeson the man, or Robeson the symbol, is misleading and wrong. Robeson the man was defined by boundless compassion: for war refugees, for his oppressed black brothers, and in a real sense, for all who suffered in an uncaring world. And Robeson the symbol represented, not the Communist Party or the Soviet Union, but resistance to oppression and struggle for a just society.

As we mourn his passing we recall a refrain from "Freiheit", the Spanish Civil War song he immortalized:

We'll not yield a foot to Franco's Fascists,

Even though the bullets fall like sleet,

With us stand those peerless men our comrades,

And for us there can be no retreat.