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Paul Robeson

33 quotes

“If the American Negro is to have a culture of his own he will have to leave America to get it.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Paul Robeson and Negro Music" in The New York Times (5 April 1931)
“I found a special eagerness among the younger, and I am sorry to say, the more intelligent Negroes, to dismiss the spiritual as something beneath their new pride in their race. It is as if they wanted to put it behind them as something to be ashamed of...”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Paul Robeson and Negro Music" in The New York Times (5 April 1931)
“From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot! It is the government's duty to put down any opposition to this really free society with a firm hand, and I hope they will always do it, for I already regard myself at home here. This is home to me. I feel more kinship to the Russian people under their new society than I ever felt anywhere else. It is obvious that there is no terror here, that all the masses of every race are contented and support their government.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'I Am at Home' Says Robeson at Reception in Soviet Union", Daily Worker (15 January 1935)
“If the United States and the United Nations truly want peace and security let them fulfill the hopes of the common people everywhere – let them work together to accomplish on a worldwide scale, precisely the kind of democratic association of free people which characterizes the Soviet Union today.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Worker (15 November 1945)
“I am truly happy that I am able to travel from time to time to the USSR — the country I love above all. I always have been, I am now and will always be a loyal friend of the Soviet Union.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ’I Love Above All, Russia,’ Robeson Says," Afro-American, (25 June 1949), p. 7
“In the early days of my carer as an actor, I shared what was then the prevailing attitude of Negro performers — that the content and form of a play or a film scenario was of little importance to us. What mattered was was the opportunity, which came so seldom to our folks … Later I came to understand that the Negro artist could not view the matter simply in terms of his individual interests, and that he had a responsibility to his people who rightfully resented the traditional stereotyped portrayals of Negros on stage and screen.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Paul Robeson : Here I Stand (1958), p. 124
“For the first time since I began acting, I feel that I've found my place in the world, that there's something out of my own culture which i can express and perhaps help others preserve..i have found out now that the African natives had a definite culture a long way beyond the culture of the Stone age...an integrated thing, which is still unspoiled by western influences...I think the Americans will be amazed to find how many of the modern dance steps are relics of African heritage.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Paul Robeson : The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 72
“The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people: despoiled of their lands, their true culture destroyed... denied equal protection of the law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Paul Robeson, The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 60
“Films make me into some cheap turn...You bet they'll never let me play a part in a film where a Negro is on top.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Paul Robeson : The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 92
“One does not need a very long racial memory to loose on oneself in such a part … As I act, civilization falls away from me. My plight becomes real, the horrors terrible facts. I feel the terror of the slave mart, the degradation of man bought and sold into slavery. Well, I am the son of an emancipated slave and the stories of old father are vivid on the tablets of my memory.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Regarding his work with the playwright Eugene O'Neill, as quoted in Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizen (1989) by Charles Musser, "The Troubled relations: Robeson, O'Neil and Micheaux", p. 94
“I found it very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition... the same old story, the negro singing his way to glory.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Regarding the film Tales of Manhattan, as quoted in Paul Robeson (1989) by Martin Duberman, " The Discovery of Africa", p. 259
“Sometimes great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in the pursuit of a great and just cause.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To his son Paul Jr regarding the execution of his friend Ignaty Kazahov, as quoted in "The Undiscovered Paul Robeson" (2001) by Paul Robeson Jr, p. 306
“Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Paul Robeson : I Want to Make Freedom Ring (2008) by Carin T. Ford, p. 97, Ch. 9
“Commenting on the recent execution after court-martial of a number of counter-revolutionary terrorists, Robeson declared roundly: “From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot!”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the government’s duty to put down any opposition to this really free society with a firm hand,” he continued, “and I hope they will always do it, for I already regard myself at home here. This is home to me. I feel more kinship to the Russian people under their new society than I ever felt anywhere else. It is obvious that there is no terror here, that all the masses of every race are contented and support their government.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pablo Neruda of Chile, one of the world’s greatest poets..Martin Anderson Nexo, the greatest modern Danish humanist...Rev. James Endicott, fearless Canadian minister and fighter for peace...”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As Americans, preserving the best of our traditions, we have the right—nay the duty—to fight for participation in the forward march of humanity.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this framework we can make clear what co-existence means. It means living in peace and friendship with another kind of society—a fully integrated society where the people control their destinies, where poverty and illiteracy have been eliminated and where new kinds of human beings develop in the framework of a new level of social living.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The telling of these truths is an important part of our work in building a strong and broad peace movement in the United States...at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the deep desire for peace remained with the American people. Wallace was hailed by vast throngs when he resigned from Truman’s cabinet in protest against the war-mongering of the then Secretary of State James Byrnes, now the Negro-hating governor of South Carolina. We know how Truman betrayed the American people in their hopes for peace, how he betrayed the Negro people in their thirst for equal rights, how he tore up the Bill of Rights and subjected the whole American people to a reign of FBI-terrorization.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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?”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am here because I am opposing the Neo-Fascist cause, which I see arising here in these committees.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union.… You are responsible, and your forebears, for 60 million to 100 million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations, and don’t ask me about anybody, please.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are the non-patriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vast quantities of U.S. bombers, tanks and guns have been sent against Ho Chi Minh and his freedom-fighters; and now we are told that soon it will be 'advisable' to send America GI's into Indo-China in order that the tin, rubber and tungsten of Southeast Asia be kept by the "free world"-meaning white Imperialism.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Today in Korea—in Southeast Asia—in Latin America and the West Indies, in the Middle East—in Africa, one sees tens of millions of long oppressed colonial peoples surging toward freedom. What courage—what sacrifice—what determination never to rest until victory!...And arrayed against them, the combined powers of the so-called Free West, headed by the greedy, profit-hungry, war-minded industrialists and financial barons of our America. The illusion of an “American Century” blinds them for the immediate present to the clear fact that civilization has passed them by—that we now live in a people’s century—that the star shines brightly in the East of Europe and of the world. Colonial peoples today look to the Soviet Socialist Republics...One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin—the shapers of humanity’s richest present and future.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To You Beloved Comrade" (April 1953)
“It was deeply fascinating to watch how strikingly contemporary American audiences from coast to coast found Shakespeare's Othello — painfully immediate in its unfolding of evil, innocence, passion, dignity and nobility, and contemporary in its overtones of a clash of cultures, of the partial acceptance of and consequent effect upon one of a minority group. Against this background, the jealousy of the protagonist becomes more credible, the blows to his pride more understandable, the final collapse of his personal, individual world more inevitable. But beyond the personal tragedy, the terrible agony of Othello, the irretrievability of his world, the complete destruction of all his trusted and sacred values — all these suggest the shattering of a universe.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Some Reflections on Othello and the Nature of Our Time." in The American Scholar (Autumn 1945); also quoted in Paul Robeson : The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 150
“I was not prepared for the happiness I see on every face in Moscow,” said Robeson. “I was aware that there was no starvation here, but I was not prepared for the bounding life; the feeling of safety and abundance and freedom that I find here, wherever I turn. I was not prepared for the endless friendliness, which surrounded me from the moment I crossed the border. I had a technically irregular passport, but all this was brushed aside by the eager helpfulness of the border authorities. And this joy and happiness and friendliness, this utter absence of any embarrassment over a ‘race question’ is all the more keenly felt by me because of the day I spent in Berlin on the way here, and that was a day of horror—in an atmosphere of hatred, fear and suspicion.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility. Once we are joined together in the fight for peace we will have to talk to each other and tell the truth about each other. How else can peace be won? I have always insisted—and will insist, even more in the future on my right to tell the truth as I know it about the Soviet peoples: of their deep desires and hopes for peace, of their peaceful pursuits of reconstruction from the ravages of war, as in historic Stalingrad; and to tell of the heroic efforts of the friendly peoples in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, great, new China and North Korea—to explain, to answer the endless falsehoods of the warmongering press with clarity and courage.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Korean war has always been an unpopular war among the American people. We remember the unforgivable trickery in the use of the United Nations to further the purposes of “American century” imperialists in that land—quite comparable to the taking of Texas from Mexico, the rape of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Hawaii...today the Negro people watch Africa and Asia and closely follow the liberation struggles of the rising peoples in these lands. We watch the United Nations and see the U.S.A. join with the western imperialist nations to stifle the liberation struggles. We cannot help but see that it is Vishinsky and the spokesman of the Eastern European Peoples Democracies who defend and vote for the interests of the African and Asian peoples. Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, all Africa remembers that it was Litvinov who stood alone beside Haile Selassie in Geneva, when Mussolini's sons flew with the blessings of the Pope to drop bombs on Ethiopian women and children. Africa remembers that it was the Soviet Union which fought the attempts of the Smuts to annex Southwest Africa to the slave reservation of the Union of South Africa... if the peoples of the Congo refuse to mine the uranium for the atom bombs made in Jim Crow factories in the United States; if all these peoples demand an end to floggings, an end to the farce of 'trusteeship' in the former Italian colonies.... The Soviet Union is the friend of the African and the West Indian peoples.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source