Paul Robeson:
Icon For The 21st Century 

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN / Emerge 1apr98

On the 100th anniversary of his birth, Robeson's achievements maintain contemporary meaning in America's social, political and cultural arenas. 

ONE OF THE FIRST significant events of the bicentennial year of Arnerican independence was the death of Paul Robeson on January 23, 1976. Here was an extraordinary, quintessential American hero b a y standards. He was an All-American football star and a varsity member of several other sports teams Rutgers College, and. he was the Phi Beta Kappa valedictorian of the class of 1918. Then he went on to graduate from the Columbia University Law School. With a bounty of. talents, he became the star of the theater and concert stage as well as an idol of the motion–picture screen. His fellow Americans might well have concluded that he epitomized everything that they held dear. They could have regarded him as the very incarnation of the independent American spirit that they would celebrate in the bicentennial year.

Instead, too many Americans made begrudging concessions to his genius even at his death. The New York Times, commenting on his career at the time of his death, lamented the fact that Robeson was "under a cloud during the cold war as a political dissenter and an outspoken admirer of the Soviet Union." The editor went on to observe that these circumstances as well as the award in 1952 of a Stalin Peace Prize combined to close many minds to his artistic merits as a singer and actor. These American minds were doubtless closed without attempting to understand what forces and impulses influenced his conduct in World War II. Consequently, it would not be possible for them to grasp the impulses that governed his conduct during the years following the close of hostilities.

The minds that were closed even to less glamorous black Americans during the war, were represented by the post–Pearl Harbor white military establishment that rejected highly trained black volunteers for military service by explaining to them that they had every-thing but color. They were represented by the official Red Cross policy of segregating blood and blood plasma on the basis of race, in the face of the enormous contributions to the very development and deployment of blood banks by the eminent African American hematologist Charles R. Drew. They were represented by the mil-lions of white Americans who literally gloried in the widespread practice of degrading and dehumanizing black Americans by subjecting them to every conceivable form of humiliation including jim crow in transportation in the recruiting stations, in the bar-racks, and even on the fighting front. They were represented by the unwillingness, until January 13, 1997, to consider seriously a single one of the million black Americans who served in World War II as worthy of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

If, during World War II, Paul Robeson enjoyed some personal professional success, he did not overlook the predicament of other, less–fortunate African Americans. "Racial and religious prejudices continue to cast an ugly shadow on the principles for which we are fighting," he told the Morehouse College graduates in the spring of 1943. Nevertheless, Robeson urged blacks to support the war effort, warning them that the victory of fascism would "make slaves of us all," and he called on the government to eradicate all of those un–American practices of discrimination that were so common in the factories and the armed forces. Perhaps it was his assertion that the supporters of racial discrimination and racial antagonism were "first cousins if not brothers of the Nazis" that infuriated many white Americans. His holding up the Soviet Union as the example of a nation opposed to racial exclusiveness and in favor of equality of nations must have driven his adversaries to the brink of madness. It surely closed their minds to any possible good that he might offer in any sphere of activity.

Those who survived Paul Robeson and witnessed the observances of the bicentennial during 1976 were moved to recall all too often his words of warning during and after the war. The postwar battles for racial justice were essentially the same as those for which Robeson fought during the war; and the prospects for victory were almost as dim as ever. There was Judge John Sirica of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia ordering the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to begin proceedings against schools in the area that were not complying with the desegregation requirements that had been established. There were numerous allegations of racial discrimination by banks, hotels, schools, orchestras, police departments, prisons, utility companies, beaches, real estate dealers, restaurants, and others where any American might expect to receive equal treatment.

It appeared that black issues had been relegated to an insignificant place during the nation's bicentennial year. One can be certain that, had he lived, Paul Robeson would have been one American whose voice could have been heard above all others in that bicentennial year his condemnation of ...racial and all other forms of discrimination.

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since Robeson's death. There have been some developments that would have warmed his heart. Distinguished African Americans grace the faculty of Rutgers, his alma mater, and many other colleges and universities of the first rank. Hundreds of thousands of African American students attend colleges and universities that were closed to them during most of Robeson's life. African Americans have climbed the pinnacle of success in their chosen fields, many more in the sports world, however, than in business and many more in the entertainment world than in education. Most distressing of all is that today there are more young black men in jails and prisons than are in colleges and universities. And if some blacks had attained success in politics and won elections as mayors, members of state legislatures and the federal Congress, and high appointive offices, the flip side was bleak indeed. Millions of African Americans declined to bother to vote, despite the fact that the ballot was won by the struggles of the likes of Paul Robeson and James Farmer and the martyrdom of the likes of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr. Consequently, elections that should have been won and agendas that would have given hope to the down–trodden and underprivileged were, through the dereliction of nonparticipants in the electoral process, handed on a platter to the opponents of justice and equality.

The remarkably wonderful thing about the principles for which Paul Robeson stood during his lifetime is that they remain relevant and even urgent today. These principles should not be obscured, moreover, by the caustic and bitter criticism heaped on him by the Cold Warriors. There is no evidence whatsoever that Robeson was ever a part of any subversive group or that he cherished the hope that one day the United States would be under the control of some other power with a different form of government. What he did hope for was that one day the United States would extend to all of its citizens the rights and privileges guaranteed in the Constitution.

If Robeson was unable to persuade his contemporaries to join him in his crusade for a better America, he did not give up easily. In October 1949, I was present when he gave a concert in Washington, DC. It was a unique experience to hear him for the first time in my life; and it was an extraordinary experience to hear an artist "lace" his recital of songs with political and social commentaries. He declared, once more, that there could be no question about his loyalty to the United States, but he made it clear that there were individuals and groups within the United States for whom he had no respect and that he would not trim his comments to curry favor with them or attempt to placate them in any way. I had heard him sing over the radio and on phonograph records, but I had never heard him speak, and I have seldom if ever heard such eloquence, such passion, and such obvious sincerity as he gave his audience that evening. I was persuaded then as I continue to be convinced, even now, that Paul Robeson had a message for his time and for later generations.

Many can utter truths that reflect the consensus of their fellows. Some can speak seriously and even persuasively on controversial questions about which there is honest, but civil, disagreement. Very few, however, have the courage to speak out in support of unpopular causes when the stakes are high and the risks are many. In taking his stand, Robeson was such a per-son; and although his stands caused him much anguish and even pain and physical suffering, he saw no alternative. Some of Robeson's gifted predecessors and some of his contemporaries took the position that it was useless to fight the racial bigotry that was so pervasive in the United States. Consequently, they chose to become expatriates and live abroad, where their talents were fully appreciated and where they were not treated as second–class citizens or pariahs. Although Robeson lived and worked abroad for long stretches of time, there was no indication that he ever seriously considered expatriation. To him, this was no solution even for him; and it surely was no solution for the millions of his fellow African Americans who did not have that option and to whom he was as loyal as he was to his country. No, he would return here as frequently as he could, take up the cudgel, and fight the good fight.

Paul Robeson possessed the qualities that made it possible for him to speak to later generations, particularly since the problems with which his generation grappled persist and show no signs of disappearing altogether. That is why he has much to say to those after him, and especially to those who look to the next century as an age in which the problems that he faced may be significantly mitigated if not solved altogether. At a time when isolationism, if not downright xenophobia, is casting a shadow over much of our relations with other countries, it is well to remember that Robeson had much to say in support of an internationalism that embraced not only cultural communication but economic and political cooperation as well.

Here, then, are suggestions from Paul Robeson about how in the next century we can live at home and work for its improvement and, at the same time, cultivate the healthiest possible relations with the peoples of the world. Robeson declared that,

To achieve the right of full citizenship which is our just demand, we must ever speak and act like free men. When we criticize the treatment of Negroes in America and tell our fellow citizens at home and the peoples abroad what is wrong with our country, each of us can say with Frederick Douglass: "In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins."

Loyalty, then, is an important ingredient in citizenship, for it gives meaning and substance to any critical position that a person might take. Intolerant observers who shout to a nation's critic that he should love it or leave it cannot understand that the critic shows his love of his country by pointing out ways in which it can and should improve itself.... The example of Robeson in this regard is as clear as it is courageous. When Representative Gordon Scherer asked him, in Robeson's celebrated 1956 appearance before the House Un–American Activities Committee, why he did not remain in Russia, he retorted, "Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. And no fascist–minded people will drive me from it."

It would not be too much to say that, were Robeson among us as the century ends, and that far–away time has arrived, he would express the same impatience and urgency that he did many years ago. That in itself is an important legacy for the twenty–first century.

photo: W.E.B. Du Bois greets Paul Robeson at a 1949 peace conference in Paris.

Robeson's wide travels and his familiarity with many peoples and cultures made his name both a house-hold word around the world and a stranger in his own land. He was painfully aware that there were wide gaps between the haves and the have-nots in many parts of the world. He also knew that class and racial oppression was not confined to the United States but, indeed, thrived in many places that he had visited in Asia, Africa, and Europe. If he was less critical of some places than he was of the United States, it was because he was impatient with the exaggerated claims of self–righteousness on the part of his fellow countrymen. His level of expectation was high for a land that lived with the exalted principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and equal justice under law set forth in the Constitution. Therefore, he would press his own country to become the beacon of light for other countries to follow and provide for generations beyond the twentieth century a challenge to transform tensions of race, class, and nationality into the American ideals we hold to be true and honorable.

In pressing this point as he did with ever–increasing vigor, he caused the more narrow minded in his own country to doubt his allegiance to his native land. However, Robeson wished the best for his own country as he wished for countries everywhere. It was his failure to be a narrow–minded nationalist that led many of his fellow Americans to turn against him. But it was this world view that placed him ahead of his time and, perhaps, made him more tolerant of other systems of government than he was of his own. This world view is one of Robeson's major legacies and, indeed, could facilitate our effort to improve our relationships with other peoples and cultures. In an age of sophisticated global communications, the theme of today's generation is that the world has become smaller. Yet, Paul Robeson had long recognized the interconnectedness of the world community. The ever–increasing economic, political, and social interaction and dependency has made Robeson's ideals of openness and tolerance ever more essential to the coming millennium.

Paul Robeson was one of the great icons of his own time. He was a force to be reckoned with and even his severest critics recognized that indisputable fact. Indeed, Robeson remains a powerful icon today. It is clear that he would urge Americans to create relation-ships beyond their borders, demand that they uphold the ideals of democracy and equality, and challenge this generation to accept this torch as we approach the next century.

Copyright © 1998 by Paul Robeson Cultural Center and Rutgers, The State University. Reprinted from Paul Robeson, Artist and Citizen, to be published in April 1998 edited by Rutgers University Press and Paul Robeson Cultural Center