Word: robeson
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...Paul Robeson knew what it was like to be popular-as an All America football star, as a concert artist who packed halls from coast to coast and made a fortune. In recent years, he had also learned what it meant to be unpopular-for being a party-liner and saying he preferred Russia to the U.S. Only last week a fellow Negro denounced him before a congressional committee as a would-be "black Stalin...
...Paul Robeson, a leftwinger herself, wrote a letter to the Springfield (Mass.) Union. It was a little slick, and studded with the tag ends of party phrases, but also in it were sentences which showed a little of what it meant to be famously unpopular in the U.S. Excerpts...
...During these last few days, when our beloved and only child married the girl he loves [Paul Robeson Jr., who went to school in Russia, married a white girl], I have taken the crucial beating at the hands of my fellow countrymen. Some of them collected in the street to boo my children, whom they did not even know. The natural thing for people to do when they see a newly married pair is to smile indulgently, vaguely wish them well. These people were wishing my children evil...
...Singer Paul Robeson, it was a busy week. Stepping off a plane in New York after a four-month tour of eight European countries, including a visit to the U.S.S.R., the burly baritone orated: "In Eastern democracies [i.e., the Soviet satellites] the people are happy and singing and are trying to build for peace-while I have to be met by a police squad*... an interesting welcome." As for Europe, "I found nothing but friendliness and good will for the workers and progressives in America." But "I found no liking for the Marshall Plan among the common people. I found...
That evening, Traveler Robeson spoke before a rally sponsored by the Council on African Affairs. He sang five songs, and spoke for 90 minutes. Sample: "Yes, I love this Soviet people more than I love any other nation, because of their suffering and sacrifices for us, the Negro people, the people of the future in this world...