Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary

by Gerald Horne

***Winner PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award***

“A fine, taut analysis of the great African American athlete, singer, actor, and political activist.”
— Choice, Highly Recommended
 
Paul Robeson should be remembered today as the forerunner of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Muhammad Ali. He sacrificed his fame and fortune a performer and athlete in order to fight for the rights of African Americans during the time of Jim Crow and U.S. Apartheid.
 
A world-famous singer and actor, a trained lawyer, an early star of American professional football and a polyglot who spoke over a dozen these could be the crowning achievements of a life well-lived. Yet for Paul Robeson the higher calling of social justice led him to abandon both the NFL and Hollywood and become one of the most important political activists of his generation, a crusader for freedom and equality who battled both Jim Crow and US Senator Joseph McCarthy during the communist witch hunt of the 1950s.    
 
In Paul The Artist as Revolutionary , Gerald Horne discovers within Robeson's remarkable and revolutionary life the story of the twentieth century's great political against racism, against colonialism, against poverty—and for international socialism. Chapters
 
*”The Best Known American in the World"
*Rising Revolutionary
*From Moscow to Madrid
*"Black Stalin"?
* Primary Victim of the "Blacklist"
*Triumph—and Tragedy
*Death of a Revolutionary      
 
In the Introduction, Horne “Paul Robeson—activist, artist, athlete—experienced a dramatic rise and fall, perhaps unparalleled in U.S. history. From mingling with the elite of London society and Hollywood in the 1930s, by the time he died in 1976, he was a virtual recluse in a plain abode in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia. What helps to explicate this tragic art of his life is a fateful decision he made when fascism was he threw in his lot with those battling for socialism and decide to sacrifice his thriving artistic career on behalf of the struggle against Jim Crow—or U.S. apartheid.”
 
This critical and searching biography provides an opportunity for readers to comprehend the triumphs and tragedies of the revolutionary progressive movement of which Paul Robeson was not just a part, but perhaps its most resonant symbol.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Race, African American, Biography Memoir, American History

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2016

About the author

Dr. Gerald Horne is an eminent historian who is Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. An author of more than thirty books and one hundred scholarly articles and reviews, his research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, war and the film industry.

Reviews

[Hatuxka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three things bothered me at once. Horne hides Robesons courageous refusal to go along with the western lies about events in the Soviet Union. A monumental milestone in Robeson's committed communism was his support for the position of the Soviet Union in signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It is to his credit that he saw that the USSR signed the treaty because of continually being put off by Britain and France and Poland in seeking a mutual defense pact. Horne ignores this. Bizarre. Horne uses Stephen Cohen (easily picked apart for his omissions and misuse of sources) as a source in implying that Robeson would have considered the fate of Bukharin (convicted of conspiring with Germany and Japan against the Soviet Union to kill Stalin and to overturn the Revolution) to have been "tragic". Ludicrous and incongruous to any full telling of his beliefs. He is quoted as having said about the conspiracy "anybody who lifts his hand against it [the USSR] ought to be shot!" The very heart of the matter with Robeson was his unwavering support for what the USSR represented and why he supported it. Stalin was emblematic of the USSR of Robeson's time, yet Stalin is found only once in the index. Stalin is mentioned again on page 154, but the reader might struggle like me to make sense of the passage for what it intends to say about what Robeson thought of the crucial events described (the Khrushchev "secret speech", the Soviet incursion into Hungary). His actual position on the Khrushchev speech is represented by his refusal to sign a condemnation of one of the charges against Stalin by Khrushchev concerning Jewish writers. Every charge made by Khrushchev has been debunked by the historian Grover Furr in his excellent book "Khrushchev Lied". The defiance he showed to the unamerican activities types is nowhere to be found here, only a summary of the authors observations on it. In any case, of what Horne does tell here, the bold greatness of Robeson could not fail to come through.

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tremendous account of one of the greatest men of the 20th Century. As the great Gerald Horne makes clear, Paul Robeson was an icon not just due to his immense, globally recognize talent as an actor, singer, athlete, and scholar, but because of his principled stance as a champion for the masses of oppressed and colonized people throughout the world. Robeson’s life is a clear contrast to the type of celebrity (Black and otherwise) we see today. Not only did he put his money where his mouth was in a real way (by funding and creating actual radical organizations), he sacrificed his livelihood—at the height of his career—to stand in solidarity with the oppressed. His is an example that not many in his position would dream of following.

The central theme throughout the book is how Robeson used his art—specifically his ability to sing and act in multiple languages—to bridge gaps and traverse the globe, forging his belief in universal humanism that characterized his politics until his dying day. Robeson’s talent took him all over the world and introduced him to all different types of people. In learning their languages (Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, French, Spanish, various African languages, etc.), he saw commonalities in human beings where others saw only intractable division. This, alongside his burning desire to see Africans around the world freed from colonial oppression, shaped his political development throughout the mid-20th Century. Robeson’s anti-colonial sentiments and universal mindset drew him close to the socialist camp and right into the arms of the American repressive machine. His political activity—including organizing and funding of the Council on African Affairs and his ties to the Communist Party and the USSR—eventually led to a form of national house arrest wherein the U.S. government suspended his passport.

Robeson faced off against the full force of American political repression, yet remained steadfast in his anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist positions. To this end, Horne describes how Robeson’s internationalism ultimately served as the foundation for the successes of the Civil Rights Movement, as the U.S.’s government sought to weaken his example of Black internationalism and the Communist bloc’s posturing to Black Americans by lessening the terroristic nature of Jim Crow. In this way, Robeson is both a hero and an example of what Black internationalism can achieve. Paul Robeson does not get the credit and attention his remarkable life deserves. As Horne makes clear, Robeson is up there with the other giants of the struggle against oppression, and his story offers many lessons on solidarity, principled resistance in the face of repression, universalism, and self-determination.

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting to absolutely love this book. Gerald Horne, writing about Paul Robeson, in the Pluto Revolutionary Lives series? Seems like a match made in heaven. And yet it didn't quite live up to expectations.

Gerald Horne is of course entirely sympathetic to Robeson's politics, so it was a pleasure not to deal with an idiotic anti-communist author either criticising or scrambling to justify Paul Robeson's lifelong commitment to socialism; to the fight against fascism, racism and colonialism. And on this, the book certainly has lots of interesting details and nuggets of information. You get a solid and trustworthy account of the major parts of Robeson's extraordinary life, and a useful analysis of what he represented to the world - as well as the cynical political forces that worked relentlessly to suppress his voice. McCarthyism as a complex political phenomenon is covered well.

Perhaps what's slightly dissatisfying about the book is its brevity. Robeson lived an incredible life and contributed to the most important political struggles of the 20th century. He was a brilliant singer, campaigner, linguist, actor and orator, and he was deeply committed to fighting oppression and discrimination in all its forms. He was a close personal friend of WEB DuBois, Kwame Nkrumah, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sergei Eisenstein and many more. He was revered from the mining valleys of Wales to the slums of apartheid South Africa. Maybe 200 pages just isn't enough for a life like that.

That said, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Should ideally be read in conjunction with Here I Stand and, if you can find it, Paul Robeson Speaks: Writings, Speeches, and Interviews, a Centennial Celebration.

[Steven Voorhees · Rating 4 out of 5]

A penetrating biography of Paul Robeson, a Renaissance man if there ever was one. A singer non-pareil and actor, of course, Robeson was also an Ivy League-trained lawyer, a multi-linguist and, via his unstoppable consciousness, a champion of humanity. His native country didn’t see him as such, however. Robeson’s vessel of outspokenness clashed against contrarian (and powerful) political/ideological currents. Yet he managed to keep himself above water even when his conscience took it on. Horne commendably chronicles Robeson’s turbulent and very eventful life in this pungently analytical book.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Any new work on Robeson is welcome. Any new work that is so positive about this outstanding human being is even more welcome. It was good, the notes were excellent, a bibliography would have been a plus.

Now I have to go and listen to the records all over again.

[Sukhpreet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am glad to have learned about Paul Robeson but boy did this book make his important, exciting life read like a largely dull and often repetitive history textbook.

[Walter Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve known of Paul Robeson’s since I was a teenager only due to track meets where we would come up to the Armory in New York and run against their high school teams. One of them being Paul Robeson high school, their girls team was killer. But I didn’t know much about the man himself. I was immediately delighted to learn this man was born at the tail end of the 19th century in NEW JERSEY. And that he was a larger than life figure being an athlete, polyglot, activist, singer and thespian. This man was the predecessor to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King but he is almost seemingly wiped away from history. This due to his constant condemnation of America in the first half of the 20th century. This man was a world renown artist and was able to travel the globe and see the effects of imperialism first hand. This is already after he experienced the blatant racism that was common practice in America. He called America out for their misdeeds and even petitioned to the United Nations accusing the United States of genocide of African Americans. As the Red Scare drew in, the American government was not a fan of his association with communism, socialism and Russia. He was so influential to the point that you thought the FBI would’ve killed him, not like they didn’t try. But instead the government revoked his passport from 1950-1958 so he could no longer travel the world, and lose money since that is where he made most of it. He still fought for civil rights in America and in the 40s he helped establish the ‘Progressive Party’ which was a 3rd option compared to Republican/Democrats. He along with WEB Dubois were also founding members of the CAA - Council of African Affairs. He was anti fascist, anti imperialist and anti colonial at a time where America saw it as a hindrance to their perceived image. He wasn’t perfect and there is fair criticism in his efforts to stand by Russia, especially in their conflict with Yugoslavia. But he did his best to fight for the working class and entertain them as well. It sucks to see that America’s propaganda worked for the most part. I don’t think many people especially my age or younger know who this man is or let alone have ever heard of his name. He has successfully been wiped from history to a certain extent but hopefully he is not forgotten entirely as time moves forward

[Craig Werner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful mostly as a source of information about who the great singer, socialist, actor met and how the press reported his activities. Simply not very well written, gliding over key dates, and avoiding central issues such as Robeson's unquestioning support of the USSR's invasion of Hungary. The bare bones of the story are here, but that's about it.

[Mark Simons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Robeson is a fascinating person, outstanding and remarkable in so many ways.

Most people do not know very much about him, and this book will rectify that.

How he was made a persona non-grata by the American state is fascinating reading, as is his journey to socialism and a desire for peace and unity amongst all people of the earth.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's pretty tough to mess up telling the life story of someone like Paul Robeson, so the book was inherently good. Could have been more thoroughly edited, though. Lots of repetition and little things like that. But a worthwhile read for sure.

[Роман Батяев · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful singler with tragical life. He proved that being human more important, than everything else.

[Monique Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read. Awesome human being!

[George O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe the most underrated figure of the 20th century. A radical advocate, cosmopolitan, renaissance man, and bon vivant par excellence. Everyone should learn about him.