Testimony of
Paul Robeson before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities, June 12,
1956
...
Mr. ROBESON:
Two thousand students from various parts of the colonial world, students who since then have become very important in their governments, in places like
Indonesia and
India, and in many parts of
Africa, two thousand students asked me and Mr. [Dr.
Y. M.]
Dadoo, a leader of the
Indian people in
South Africa, when we addressed this conference, and remember I was speaking to a
peace conference, they asked me and Mr. Dadoo to say there that they were struggling for peace, that they did not want war against anybody. Two thousand students who came from populations that would range to six or seven hundred million people
.
...
Mr. ROBESON: I do not remember that. But what is perfectly clear today is that nine hundred million other colored people have told you that they will not.
Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that
the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence.
We are dealing not with fifteen million colored people, we are dealing with hundreds of millions.
Mr. KEARNEY:
The witness has answered the question and he does not have to make a speech
. . . .
Mr. ROBESON:
In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being.
No color prejudice like in
Mississippi, no color prejudice like in
Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being. Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel [it] in this Committee today.
Mr. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in
Russia?
Mr. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and
I am 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? I am for peace with the
Soviet Union, and I am for peace with
China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the
Fascist Franco, and I am not for peace with Fascist
Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.
Mr. SCHERER:
You are here because you are promoting the Communist cause.
Mr. ROBESON: I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which I see arising in these committees. You are like the
Alien [and] Sedition Act, and
Jefferson could be sitting here, and
Frederick Douglass could be sitting here, and
Eugene Debs could be here
.
. . . .
THE CHAIRMAN: There was no prejudice against you. Why did you not send your son to
Rutgers?
Mr. ROBESON: Just a moment. This is something that I challenge very deeply, and very sincerely: that the success of a few
Negroes, including myself or
Jackie Robinson can make up—and here is a study from
Columbia University—for seven hundred dollars a year for thousands of
Negro families in the
South. My father was a slave, and I have cousins who are sharecroppers, and I do not see my success in terms of myself. That is the reason my own success has not meant what it should mean: I have sacrificed literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars for what
I believe in.
Mr. ARENS: While you were in
Moscow, did you make a speech lauding
Stalin?
Mr. ROBESON: I do not know
.
...
Mr. ARENS: Have you recently changed your mind about Stalin?
Mr. ROBESON:
Whatever has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union, and I would not argue with a representative of the people who, in building
America, wasted sixty to a hundred million lives of my people, black people drawn from Africa on the plantations. You are responsible, and your forebears, for sixty million to one hundred million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations, and don’t ask me about anybody, please.
...
Mr. ROBESON: I have told you, mister, that I would not discuss anything with the people who have murdered sixty million of my people, and I will not discuss Stalin with you.
Mr. ARENS: You would not, of course, discuss with us the slave labor camps in
Soviet Russia.
Mr. ROBESON: I will discuss Stalin when I may be among the
Russian people some day, singing for them, I will discuss it there. It is their problem.
. . . .
Mr. ROBESON: I say that he is as patriotic an
American as there can be, and you gentlemen belong with the
Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
THE CHAIRMAN: Just a minute, the hearing is now adjourned.
Mr. ROBESON: I should think it would be.
THE CHAIRMAN: I have endured all of this that I can.
Mr. ROBESON:
Can I read my statement?
THE CHAIRMAN: No, you cannot read it. The meeting is adjourned.
Mr. ROBESON: I think it should be, and you should adjourn this forever, that is what I would say. . . .
- published: 23 Feb 2016
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