#GeraldHorne on the life and death of #PaulRobeson who filed a #genocide charge at the #UN against the #US over their treatment of #Black and #Colored people in #slavery.
Paul Robeson. bass-baritone concert artist, actor, lawyer, professional football player & activist- an all around once in a lifetime talent. Here he is with the spiritual “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (https://youtu.be/ryM5a3ShRJU?si=tE6Uw1kHZsdzgJ1q)Seek medical attention if you aren’t moved
#RetroView #BlackHistoryMonth #PaulRobeson
"My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I'm going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?"
— Paul Robeson, actor, writer, singer, lawyer, activist
This quote comes from his testimony when ordered in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, June 1956. I highly suggest reading his whole testimony.
One of my favorite singers of all time is Paul Robeson. An accomplished athlete and performer, he was adamant and vocal in his fight for civil rights. The McCarthy Committee hounded him due to his visits to the USSR, ruining his acting career. He has only recently been recognized as an athlete and performer, although his performance of "Ole Man River" is easily recognized.
#BlackHistoryMonth #PaulRobeson
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remembering-paul-robeson-actor-sportsman-and-leader-180961834/
He is also remembered fondly in Wales, of all places
https://cadw.gov.wales/paul-robesons-wales
Paul Robeson and wife Eslanda Goode Robeson are with UCD medical students on their 1935 visit to Dublin. He would later sing about UCD medical student Kevin Barry, killed OTD 1920. "Songs of Struggle" suggests the song was recorded in 1947.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=BSjO9rIwn5M
Songs of Struggle:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Struggle-Rarities-Paul-Robeson/dp/B000BYW7B0
Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda visit with students at the medical school at the University of Dublin. The image includes (back: row third from left) Dr. Noel Holmes who became the Chief Medical Examiner of Jamaica and Dr. Errol Thompson (back row, fifth from left). Dr. Thompson went on to become an Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon in New York and founded the Speech and Hearing Center at Harlem Hospital. The image was contributed by Karen Greene, the daughter of Dr. Errol Thomas.
#OnThisDay in 1976, #PaulRobeson, American stage and screen bass-#baritone #singer ("Old Man River"), actor, and civil rights activist, died of stroke complications in Philadelphia at 77. †
#RIP
He particularly admired Irish literature and music and was an avid reader of WB Yeats.
Paul Robeson signing Joe Hill to Scottish miners in 1949:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bezsMVU7c
#PaulRobeson #SpanishCivilWar #Ireland #WBYeats
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... and it continued with his support for the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War and his involvement in the Council on African Affairs.
He fell foul of senator Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee and had his passport and concerts cancelled. Before then he visited Ireland at least three times and performed in Dublin, Limerick, and Cork in the 1930s.
#PaulRobeson #SpanishCivilWar #Ireland #WBYeats
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Paul Robeson died on 23 January 1976. He was an American concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.
Robeson's political activities began with his involvement with unemployed workers and anti-imperialist students in Britain...
#PaulRobeson #SpanishCivilWar #Ireland #WBYeats
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Today in Labor History January 19, 1920: Crystal Eastman, Roger Nash Baldwin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (from the IWW) and others founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Their original focus was freedom of speech, primarily anti-war speech, and supporting conscientious objectors. In 1923, they defended author Upton Sinclair after he was arrested for trying to read the First Amendment during an IWW rally. In 1925, they persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Clarence Darrow, an ACLU member, headed Scopes' legal team. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. In 1926, they defended H. L. Mencken, who deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned American Mercury magazine and won their first major acquittal. However, they kicked Elizabeth Gurley Flynn off their board in 1940 because of her Communist affiliations. And they refused defend Paul Robeson and other leftists in the 1950s.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #elizabethgurleyflynn #communism #aclu #evolution #uptonsinclair #PaulRobeson #clarencedarrow #hlmencken #freespeech #antiwar #education #school #freeppress #journalism #firstamendment @bookstadon
Here is an extraordinary singer, Paul Robeson, who was more actively persecuted than Ochs for his political beliefs singing about Joe Hill who was fitted up and killed by the state for singing and organizing
#OnThisDay in 1945, #PaulRobeson wins Spingarn Medal for singing and acting achievements.
September 4, 1949 - Paul Robeson, scholar, athlete, musician and leader, defying a racist and red-baiting mob, sang to 15,000 at a Labor Day gathering in Peekskill, New York.
During the event, screaming local mobs blocked the entrance to the concert area and harassed concertgoers. The veterans’ groups paraded along the highway, automobile horns blared and bands played. Attackers screamed: “We’re Hitler’s boys — here to finish his job.”
#PaulRobeson #Peekskill
#NowPlaying #PaulRobeson #Communism
Paul Robeson - "The Legendary Moscow Concert" (Revelation, 1997)
Simply astonishing Soviet live recording of Paul Robeson's Moscow radio concert on 14 June 1949, first unearthed in 1995 by Tristan Del. The story of the recording is detailed by Paul's now-deceased son, Paul Robeson Jr., in the CD liners - but read more about it here:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/robeson-s-message-from-the-grave-1290185.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=w3OjHIhLCDs
My new favorite version of "Go Down Moses," made all the more powerful by knowing Paul Robeson's story.
If you don't know his story, you need to. And then listen to this song.
"This is a serious job - winning this war against fascists. We have to be together." - Paul Robeson.
#PaulRobeson #originalantifa
Paul Robeson and his wife & manager of 22 years, Eslanda “Essie” Goode Robeson (also pictured is their son, Paul Jr.)
#SilentFlickerSunday #Borderline1930 #PaulRobeson #EslandaRobeson #BlackHistoryMonth
