[125 years after his birth, Paul Robeson, the civil rights titan,
remains a role model for battling racism and fascism. The words
written on his gravestone: “The artist must elect to fight for
freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

REMEMBERING PAUL ROBESON: ‘I HAD NO ALTERNATIVE’  
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Paul Von Blom
April 7, 2023
The Progressive
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_ 125 years after his birth, Paul Robeson, the civil rights titan,
remains a role model for battling racism and fascism. The words
written on his gravestone: “The artist must elect to fight for
freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.” _

Paul Robeson , Gordan Parks, Library of Congress

 

On June 12, 1956, Paul Robeson testified defiantly
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the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). His exchange
with Congressman Gordon Scherer of Ohio is a fitting preface to
commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of America’s
quintessential genius on April 9:

_SCHERER__: Why do you not stay in Russia?_

_ROBESON__: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build
this country, and I’m going to stay here and have a part of it just
like you. And no fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that
clear? _

That testimony reflected Paul Robeson’s lifelong commitment
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resistance and antifascist politics. His career of athletic excellence
in football, basketball, baseball, and track; his brilliant artistic
accomplishments in film, theater, and singing; his remarkable facility
in foreign languages; and his highly public efforts supporting the
rights and struggles of labor, African Americans, Jews, and socialist
groups in America and throughout the world have been documented
thoroughly
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books and articles, including frequently in the pages
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Progressive_.

Despite this well-earned acclaim, Paul Robeson has once again
seemingly faded into the obscurity that followed his blacklisting
during the dark days of McCarthyism in the 1950s. I can attest to this
sad reality anecdotally in my own experience as a teacher. Just
recently, in my honors art history course at UCLA, I projected a
portrait of Robeson to my class of about forty students. Not one had
recognized who he was and even when I identified him, it made no
difference at all. Even in my larger UCLA classes of more than 100
students, usually only two or three students at most recognize the
activist. 

Perhaps this is to be expected. Most of my students were not yet born
when Robeson received widespread media attention for his centenary
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toddlers in 2004, when the U.S. Postal Service issued
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Paul Robeson postage stamp after considerable public pressure. 

Still, Robeson’s 1956 statements about “fascist-minded people”
in the United States were eerily and tragically prescient, making it
all the more compelling to resurrect his memory yet again 125 years
after his birth. As we celebrate his life, we should pay close
attention to his courageous response to the reactionary badgering of
Congressman Scherer. We see frightening contemporary developments
throughout the United States of fascist incursions into American
political and social life. The most egregious and publicly visible
have emerged in Florida, as Republican Governor Ron DeSantis attempts
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model the state on some personal version of fascism that is profoundly
dangerous to democracy itself—including the vague and ominously
named Stop WOKE Act
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the blocking
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an African American studies course.

But DeSantis is merely the most visible contemporary proponent of an
American neo-fascism. Other governors like Glenn Youngkin
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Virginia and Sarah Huckabee Sanders
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Arkansas have also promoted fascistic policies in their states. Local
leaders in several other states have done
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same. Book removals
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rampant, including well-known classics as well as contemporary works
addressing issues of race, gender, and sexual identity. Revealingly,
banned Black authors and public figures have been notable targets,
including many historical icons and anti-racist writers, scholars, and
key representatives of Critical Race Theory, among all too many
others. Many of the activities of rightwingers today follow
the examples
[[link removed](Reuters),groups%20and%20the%20European%20Union.] of
Hungarian neo-fascist leader Viktor Orbán and other demagogues
throughout the world who abhor democracy and free expression.

All of this is reminiscent
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the blacklisting and censorship of McCarthyism during the 1950s in
America, of which Paul Robeson was one of many victims. In these
times, Robeson’s fervent antifascist vision and multifaceted record
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should also be resurrected. People of all ages can see him as a beacon
of hope and inspiration, but young persons of color, who all too
frequently are told directly or indirectly that they are incapable of
achievement, can especially look to Paul Robeson as one of the most
powerful role models they can ever have. Even though they rarely
encounter this magnificent record in school, they should listen to his
beautiful voice as he sings Black spirituals, folk songs of many
nations and cultures in many languages, labor and protest songs, and
excerpts from classical music. They should also see many of
his trailblazing films [[link removed]] from
the early twentieth century, perhaps most valuably _Song of
Freedom_ and _The Proud Valley_. And, if possible, they should
listen to the recording of his New York performance of
Shakespeare’s _Othello_—which broke ground by featuring
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multiracial cast. Unfortunately, his magnificent performance in that
classic tragedy was never filmed.

Paul Robeson’s antifascist activism long preceded and later
coincided with his artistic life. As Lindsey Swindall
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Horne [[link removed]], and
other scholars have powerfully documented, Robeson sought full freedom
for oppressed people throughout the world, including for Black people
in the United States. 

[_Paul_Robeson,_world_famous_Negro_baritone,_leading_Moore_Shipyard_(Oakland,_CA)_workers_in_singing_the_Star_Spangled_Ba_-_NARA_-_535874
copy.jpg]

Paul Robeson starring in Showboat 1933.

Photographer unknown -U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration, Public Domain

By 1937, Robeson’s antifascist vision coalesced around
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Civil War in Spain, pitting democratic forces against the fascist
rebellion of General Francisco Franco. Even in a losing cause, Robeson
supported the historic International Brigades, especially the American
volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Later, he held concerts, spoke at large rallies, campaigned for the
reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, and generally
raised awareness of the antisemitism and racism of the Axis powers.
Following the war, Robeson continued his antifascist struggles by
fighting against racial violence and lynching of African Americans,
including Black veterans who faced overt segregation, violence, and
even extrajudicial murder. His increasingly unpopular stances caused
him to be called before
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Un-American Activities Committee and to be blacklisted due to the
growing anti-communist hysteria in the country. That persecution
lasted the remainder of his life, perhaps contributing to his general
disappearance from current public discourse.

The words inscribed
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gravesite in New York are perhaps the most fitting testament to
Robeson’s life: “The artist must elect to fight for freedom or
slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”

_Paul Robeson starring in Showboat 1933_

   

_Author, Paul Von Blum, is senior lecturer in African American Studies
and Communication at UCLA. He is a longtime civil rights and political
activist and the author of many books and articles on political art,
expressive culture, education, and law._

 

* Film
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* film history
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* Paul Robeson
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* HUAC
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* Fight for freedom
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* against Racism and Fascism
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