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| Robeson takes on HUAC. |
Paul Robeson had been to Moscow. He'd
cavorted with prominent leftists in London. He sang to entertain the
troops of the Spanish “Red” Republic and to raise money. That's
just to name a few of the transgressions that landed him before the
House UnAmerican Activities Committee(HUAC) in the mid-1950s.
There is an archived recording of
Robeson locking horns with HUAC chairman Rep. Francis Walter (D).
Walter is the Walter of the
McCarran-Walter Act, a nefarious piece of legislation still on the
books used to root out and deport “subversives” in America.
Here's the link.
Here's the link.
The exchange has been transcribed
below, although the real magic is in Robeson's stentorian voice,
dripping with contempt for Walter.
Committee: Now, Mr. Robeson-
Robeson: [interrupting] Do I have the
privilege of asking who is addressing me?
Committee: I'm Richard Arons.
Robeson: What is your position?
Committee: I'm director of the staff.
Did you file a passport application in July 2, 1954?
Robeson: I've filed about 25 in the
last few months.
Committee: In July of 1954, were you
requested to submit a non Communist affidavit?
Robeson: Under no conditions would I
think of signing such an affidavit. It is a contradiction of the
rights of American citizens.
Committee: Are you now a member of the
Communist Party?
Robeson: Oh, please, please, please.
Committee: [interrupting] Please answer
will you Mr. Robeson?
Robeson: What is 'the Communist Party'?
What do you mean by that?
Committee: Are you now a member of the
Communist Party?
Robeson: [interrupting] Would you like
to come to the ballot box when I vote and take out the ballot and
see?
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| Rep. Francis Walter. |
Chairman: You are directed to answer
the question.
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment
and forget it!
Committee: I respectfully suggest the
witness be directed to answer the question, whether if he gave us a
truthful answer he would be supplying information, which might be
used against him in a criminal proceeding?
Chairman: You are directed to answer
Mr. Rob-.
Robeson: [interrupting] Gentlemen, in
the first place, wherever I've been in the world, the first to die in
the struggle against fascism were the communists. I laid many
wreathes upon the graves of communists. That is not criminal. Chief
Justice Warren has been very clear that the Fifth Amendment does not
have anything to do with the inference of criminality, and I invoke
the Fifth Amendment.
Committee: Have you ever been known
under the name of John Thomas?
Robeson: Oh please, does somebody here
want me to put up a perjury someplace, John Thomas? My name is Paul
Robeson and anything I have to say I have said in public all over the
world and that is why I am here today.
Committee: Mr. Chairman, I ask that you
direct the witness to answer the question. He's making a speech.
Chairman: I ask you to affirm or deny
the fact that your Communist Party name was John Thomas.
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.
This is really ridiculous.
Committee: The witness talks very loud
when he makes a speech, but when he invokes the Fifth Amendment I
can't hear him.
Robeson: I have medals for diction. I
can talk plenty loud.
Committee: Will you talk a little
louder?
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment. Loudly!
Committee: Sir, who are Mr. and Mrs.
Vladimir-
Robeson: [interrupting] I invoke the
Fifth Amendment.
Committee: Do you know a Manning
Johnson?
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Committee: Do you know a Gregory
Kiefitz?
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Committee: Do you know a Max Yergan?
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amend-
Committee: Max Yergan!
Robeson: Why don't you call these
people here to be cross-examined. Could I ask whether this is legal?
Committee: This is not only legal, but
usual. By unanimous vote this committee has been instructed to
perform this very distasteful task.
Robeson: [interrupting] To whom am I
talking?
Committee: You're speaking to the
chairman of the committee.
Robeson: Mr. Walter?
Committee: Yes.
Robeson: The Pennsylvania Walter?
Committee: That is right.
Robeson: Representative of the steel
workers?
Committee: That is right.
Robeson: And the coal mining workers?
Committee: That is right.
Robeson: Not United States Steel by any
chance? A white patriot.
Committee: That is right.
Robeson: You are author of the bills
that are going to keep all kinds of decent people out of the country?
Committee: No, only your kind.
Robeson: Colored people like myself.
And you would let in the Teutonic Anglo-Saxon stock?
Committee: We are trying to make it
easier to get rid of your kind, too.
Robeson: You don't want any colored
people to come in. Could I be allowed to read from my statement?
Committee: Will you just tell this
committee please, while under oath, Mr. Robeson, the communists who
participated in the preparation of that statement.
Robeson:
Ohhhh....please. The reason I am here today, from the mouth of the
State Department itself, is I should not be allowed to travel because
I have struggled for the independence of the colonial peoples of
Africa. The other reason I'm here today, again, from the State
Department and from the record of the Court of Appeals, is that when
I am abroad I speak out against injustices against the Negro people
in this land. That is why I'm
here. I'm not being tried for whether I'm a communist. I'm being
tried for fighting for the rights of my people who are still
second-class citizens in this country, in this United States of
America. My mother was born in your state. And my mother was a
Quaker. My ancestors in the time of Washington, baked bread for
George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware. My father
was a slave and I stand here struggling for the rights of my people
to be full citizens in this country and they are not. They are not in
Mississippi. They are not in Montgomery, Alabama. They are not in
Washington they are nowhere and that is why I am here today. You want
to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up for the rights
of his people, to stand up for workers. And I have been on many a
picket line for the Steelworkers too. And that, is why I'm here
today.
Committee: Would you tell us whether or not you know Thomas W. Young?
Robeson: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.
"The Goodfather,(A Novel): The Rising Fall of the Marvelous Marcantonio," can be found here
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