Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson, 1942

Template:TOCnestleft Paul Robeson (1888–1976) was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member and influential Communist activist. Many people testified at the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings in the 1950s and several identified Robeson, under oath, as a secret member of the CPUSA, including Manning Johnson.

Robeson was an All-American football player and recipient of a Phi Beta Kappa key at Rutgers University. He received his law degree at Columbia University. Robeson was also an internationally acclaimed concert performer and actor.

In 1950, after a 1949 public statement in which he said that African Americans would not fight in “an imperialist war,” his passport was revoked.

Robeson and W.E.B. DuBois were both Communist Party USA members. On April 9th, 1998 at Chicago's South Shore Cultural Center, Vernon Jarrett hosted a Paul Robeson Citywide Centennial Celebration event, with his old comrade and Party sympathiser Margaret Burroughs and former Communist Party USA members Studs Terkel and his old friend Oscar Brown, Jr.

Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace

Paul Robeson was a sponsor of the Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace which ran from March 25 - 27, 1949 in New York City. It was arranged by a Communist Party USA front organization known as the National Council of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions. The conference was a follow-up to a similar gathering, the strongly anti-America, pro-Soviet World Congress of Intellectuals which was held in Poland, August 25 - 28, 1948.

The Council on African Affairs, Inc.

The Council on African Affairs, Inc. officers circa 1950;

• Paul Robeson - Chairman
• W.E.B. DuBois - Vice-chairman
• W.A. Hunton - Secretary
• Estelle M. Osborne - Treasurer
• Louise T. Patterson - Director of Organization

"Freedom"

In the early 1950s, the publication Freedom was published monthly by Freedom Associates, 53 West 125th Street, New York 27, New York. Its editorial board consisted of Paul Robeson, Chairman; Revels Cayton, Shirley Graham, Alphaeus Hunton, Modjeska M. Simkins, Louis E. Burnham, and George B. Murphy, Jr. The printer's symbol number 178 which appears on the publication in order to identify the place where it was printed and the local of the printer's union, is also found on virtually every other piece of Communist Party USA propaganda printed in the New York area.

Youth Salute To Paul Robeson, Gala Concert, December 16, 1978

A major "Youth Salute to Paul Robeson" was held for secret CPUSA leader Paul Robeson at New York City's Felt Forum on December 16, 1978. Participants and supporters included the cream of the CPUSA's Hollywood supporters and related musical entertainers. The CPUSA newspaper the Daily World (DW) of Dec. 19, 1978, in a front page article, "Robeson salute draws 4,600 to Felt Forum", by Richard Hoyen, provided details about the affairs as well as the names of many participants. Another DW photo-article on Dec. 21, 1978, featured key entertainers who performed at this event.

From the 12/18/78 article the following people were mentioned as participants:

• Paul Robeson Jr - speaker, an identified member of the CPUSA {CITATION}
• James Steele - quoted in article, chairman of the CPUSA front, the [Young Workers Liberation League]] (YWLL)
• Frank Jackalone - chairman of the United States Student Association (USSA), formerly the National Student Association (NSA) and the U.S. Student Lobby (USSL). Jackalone has a significant record of supporter CPUSA fronts and causes.
• Odetta - South African singer, performed. Once married to marxist [[Kwame Toure], aka Stokely Carmichael. Odetta also has a long record of supporting CPUSA fronts and causes.
• Nona Hendryx - formerly of Labelle, spoke
• Hazel Dickens - folk and country singer, one of the most leftist of the American folksingers from Appalachia, sang
• Conjunto Libre - "the popular Puerto Rican musical group"
• David Amram - led his band in improvisational music. Amram is a longtime supporter of the CPUSA
• John Randolph - "actor of stage, screen and television]], spoke. One of the top CPUSA members in Hollywood, along with his wife Sarah Cunningham, also an identified member of the CPUSA.
• Frances Williams - actress and activist in support of the movement for African Liberation, chairwoman of the salute. Longtime CPUSA supporter

[[Paul Robeson Sr,who was identified as a member of the CP's "National Committee" in the House Committee on Un-American Activities report "The Structure and Organization of the Communist Party of the United States", Part 1, Hearings, HCUA, 87th Congress, 1st Session, Nov. 20, 21 & 22, 1961, P. 576]

Party membership confirmed

On May 31 1998 the Peoples Weekly World held a Paul Robeson birth centennial celebration in New York, at the Henry Winston Auditorium.

Speakers included Gus Hall, chairman of the Communist Party USA.

Hall said of Robeson;

"We can now say that Paul Robeson was a member of the Communist Party.....During the period of McCarthyism, most of the Party was forced underground. Paul, and other trade union leaders were part of that".

Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee

The Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee was set by Chicago based socialists, headed by Mark Rogovin, to mark 100th the anniversary of Paul Robeson's birthday in 1998.

Paul Robeson:A Celebration

Acknowledgments

Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee "With recognition to those who launched this campaign and those who gave guidance and leadership to the Committee’s activities."

George Bailey, Timuel Black, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, Fred Fine, Don Goldhamer, Kevin Horton, Ife McWorter, Nancy Mikelsons, Joe Powers, Sr., Ramon Price, Mark Rogovin, William Scott, Woodie T. White.

City of Chicago, Dept. of Cultural Affairs For their commitment to the Paul Robeson Centennial Campaign and their funding which helped make this publication possible.

Prof. Andrew Pickett The authors gratefully acknowledge his important research for the expanded second edition of this publication.

Cathy Campo For her seemingly unending work over the past 4 years in entering all stages of this document on her computer–handling endless additions and corrections as well as formatting and layout.

Cynthia Van Swearingen For continually scouring the Internet and downloading the FBI Robeson files and other historical references.

Postage stamp campaign

The campaign to have a Paul Robeson stamp issued began in 1997, one year before the centennial of his birth. The Chicago-based Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee started a petition, which they sent to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee. Despite the 90,000 signatures and "massive public support", the committee rejected the stamp. By the time they agreed to issue the stamp, the Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee had collected nearly 250,000 signatures.

However, the campaign’s success is not limited to the stamp’s approval. The work that went into the campaign also did much to educate the American people about Robeson’s life.

Mark Rogovin, of the Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee, stated, “we had this idea about pushing for the stamp and we obtained contacts from all over the United States in connection with the 100th birthday celebrations…. Many thousands or even tens of thousands of signatures were gathered at Chicago’s DuSable Museum of African American History. Every day, busloads of school children would visit the museum on field trips, learn about Robeson, and sign the petition.

External links

• Paul Robeson:A Celebration on Youtube
• Testimony of Paul Robeson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12, 1956
• Communist Party USA Celebrates Paul Robeson
• Paul Robeson: Centennial Celebration

References

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