Paul Robeson doesn’t deserve a postage stamp
Area Congressman Bobby Rush (D-2nd) chose April Fool’s Day to introduce a concurrent resolution asking the U.S. Postal Service to honor Paul Robeson with a stamp. If that were to ever happen, the joke would be on the majority of citizens not familiar with the life of Mr. Robeson.
Perhaps I shouldn’t complain – too much. Certainly the Honorable Rush, who used to busy himself with a leadership role in that fraternal organization known as the Black Panthers, could be up to much more mischief than just trying to catch the attention of the Postal Service.
Mr. Rush’s resolution notes that Paul Robeson “graduated from Rutgers University in 1919, with letters in basketball, baseball, discus, shot put, football, and javelin, and, more importantly, was a member of both the Phi Beta Kappa and Cap and Skull honor societies at Rutgers University.” He then “graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923, but found the legal profession so resistant to African-American lawyers that he embarked on a career in the theater and arts which brought him world renown.”
All that is generally agreed on. But then Mr. Rush’s resolution claims Paul Robeson “became an advocate for the rights of African-Americans and other oppressed people, and in so doing sacrificed his career as a world-renowned actor and singer.”
That part of the Robeson story is subject to interpretation. More importantly, Congressman Rush has ignored the salient point that, if Paul Robeson weren’t a Communist, he did a spectacular impression of being one. Some in the media portray Robeson as a victim of that great old standby, McCarthyism. According to an article in Sunday’s Tribune, Robeson’s “leftist sympathies made him one of the country’s most despised figures during the McCarthy era.” This inaccuracy has been repeated so many times it’s assumed a credibility it doesn’t merit. In 1976, when Mr. Robeson died, Time wrote that he’d been “condemned at home in the McCarthy era.” I’ve explained this more than once, but let’s give it one more try: Joe McCarthy didn’t launch his anti-Communist crusade until 1950. All the stuff that transpired before, such as the Hollywood 10, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings, and even Paul Robeson’s declining popularity, had nothing to do with that dastardly Republican senator.
Mr. Robeson’s troubles started well before 1950. In 1943 he spoke of the “great power of the Russian people – a power born of unity, of legally enforced equality, of opportunity for all the millions within its borders, regardless of race, creed, nationality or sex.” Obviously the world of Joseph Stalin, a man who murdered 30 to 40 million people, was OK because he was an Equal Opportunity butcher. The admiration was mutual and a few years later Paul Robeson was awarded a Peace Prize from Stalin. In 1946 Robeson appeared before HUAC and denied he was a Communist. The following year he took the Fifth Amendment when asked if he were a Red. Maybe he just didn’t recollect.
Robeson’s sympathy – if not downright enthusiasm - for Communism led to an understandable decline in his popularity. In 1947, a scheduled appearance was cancelled in Peoria when the mayor refused to let Robeson perform in city hall. A month after that in Albany, New York, Robeson was denied permission to hold a concert in a high school auditorium.
Long active in the World Peace Council and other Communist front organizations, Robeson had his passport cancelled in 1950 by Dean Acheson’s State Department when the entertainer refused to sign an affidavit stating he wasn’t a Communist. Increasingly unpopular in the U.S., Robeson had come to depend on his overseas’ engagements. His annual income, which had been over $100,00 in 1947, dropped to $3,000.
Paul Robeson did sacrifice a successful career, but not, as Bobby Rush would have us believe, to “became an advocate for the rights of African-Americans and other oppressed people.” No, Robeson sacrificed his career to Communism. People’s Weekly World is a publication of the Communist Party, U.S.A. In an article appearing earlier this month, Paul Robeson is described as a “Marxist-Leninist.” These folks should certainly know. A few sentences later, it’s explained that, “As a Communist, Robeson knew the working class was the locomotive of history.”
Congressman Rush will without a doubt be shocked, shocked, to know that People’s Daily World likes his idea of putting Paul Robeson on a stamp: “We call upon the entire people’s movement to raise a deafening cry that will ring through every protest and demonstration, through every motion of progressive humanity saying, ‘Honor Robeson.’ We demand it!”
With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Thoughts on Winning the Stalin Peace Prize by Paul Robeson, January 1953.
Omitted from both articles: Although Paul Robeson grew up in Princeton and was outstandingly talented, Princeton University wouldn't admit him because he was the wrong color.