Paul Robeson: singing across the Canadian Border

"What songs travel toward us/
from far away/
to deepen our days?"

Naomi Shihab Nye

On May 18 1952 Paul Robeson performed a concert for 25,000 people gathered on both sides of the US/Canadian border (information about the event is here).

At the time Robeson was denied the right to travel out of the USA because of his political activities and beliefs, specifically his frequent criticism of the treatment of African-Americans, his work in the anti-imperialist movement and his support for communism.

In 1950 Robeson's passport was confiscated and was denied the right to leave the US to perform abroad. The daily surveillance, villification, persecution and harrassment he suffered from the US authorities and those who opposed his political views made it difficult for him to perform in the US. His income plummeted and his career stalled.

For over 8 years Robeson was unable to leave the USA and was under daily and heavy surveillance by the FBI and CIA.

Previous blog posts on Paul Robeson are here.

Cross That Line
by Naomi Shihab Nye*

Paul Robeson stood
on the nothern border of the USA
and sang into Canada
where a vast audience sat on folding chairs
waiting to hear him.

He sang into Canada.
His voice left the USA
when his body was not allowed
to cross that line.

Remind us again brave friends!
What countries may we sing into?
What lines should we all be crossing?
What songs travel toward us
from far away
to deepen our days?

*Naomi Shihab Nye is a US poet  and writer of Palestinian and American heritage who lives in Texas. Her poems have featured on this blog before.

Songs of Renown: Paul Robeson, Hirsh Glik and the Hymn of the Jewish Partisans

The song Zog Nit Keynmol (in Yiddish), also known under various titles- the Hymn of the Jewish Partisans, the Partisans Song or the Song of the Warsaw Ghetto- was written in 1943 by Hirsh Glik, who was a young Jewish poet, resistance fighter and inmate of the Warsaw Ghetto. 

More about Hirsh Glik is here on the website Music and the Holocaust.

The song was adopted by Jewish partisans and resistance fighters and was a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis. The song was often sung by people in concentration camps.

The song was a regular concert performance by Paul Robeson who sang the song in Yiddish and English.

Paul Robeson sang the song in a Moscow concert in 1949 during the height of Stalin's anti-Jewish purge. It was his protest against Soviet persecution of Jews.  In that concert, Robeson spoke in support of Jewish writers and actors in Russia and his friendship with Jews who had perished in Stalin's purges.

Here is how the concert is described on the website of the  Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation:

Four years after the fall of Hitler, the tune would be used as a form of resistance against another 20th century tyrant. Paul Robeson traveled to Moscow in June of 1949 to give a performance to an audience that included many Communist Party elites, as well as what little remained of the Jewish intelligentsia after Stalin's purges. At the end of the concert, Robeson stunned the audience with a surprise rendition of the Partisan Hymn. His introductory remarks contained references to the Yiddish language, the deep and enduring cultural ties between the US and Russian Jewish communities, as well as to leading Jewish intellectuals who had been "disappeared" by the regime. 

The remarks, the spontaneous translation of the song to the shocked audience, and thunderous applause that followed were cut from the recording by Stalin's censors, but the chaos is evident in the mixture of applause and jeers that follows the actual performance.

Here is a heavily censored live version of Robeson's performance from that 1949 concert:

The following comments are from Paul Robeson's son Paul Robeson Jr's biography of his father:

... One could hear a pin drop during my father remarks about the deep and enduring cultural ties between the Jewish communities of the Soviet Union and the United States, about the common tradition of the great Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem, and about the continued vitality of the Yiddish language. Finally he announced that he would sing a song of the Jewish partisans who fought to the death against their Fascist oppressors in the Warsaw Ghetto. 

Since the song had to be sung in Yiddish, he would explain the lyrics in Russian, as follows: 

'Never say that you have reached the very endWhen leaden skies a bitter future may portend;For sure the hour for which we yearn will not arriveArid our marching steps will thunder: we survive'. 

For a moment there was no sound from the stunned audience; then a single intrepid young woman stood up and applauded, and the entire audience joined in a swelling wane of applause before my father could sing a single note. Only this response to my fathers remarks remains on the recording; Stalin's censors simply cut out his remarks, and they have disappeared..." 

The Song of the Wamaw [sic] Ghetto Rebellion sung in Yiddish (Zog Nit Keynmol) - remains an a crowning jewel of this recording of the Concert. The combination of power and pathos with which my father delivered this song transfixed his listeners. When he finished, the audience released its accumulated tension like an explosive charge. Although his listeners included many of Moscows Jewish intellectual elite who were waiting for Stalins axe to fell on them, the great majority were Russian members of the Party elite which was being decimated by a purge. Jews and Russians alike, in some places seated side-by-side, were either walking in the shadow of death or had lost someone close... 

After that first release, the ovation continued to swell and recede in a series of waves which ebbed and flowed. People stood, applauded and cried out; they called my father by his patronymic-Pavel Vasilevich; some who were total strangers fell info each others arms and wept; still others sat silently with tears streaming down their faces. The first part of the audiences response is captured on this recording, but the rest has been cut by the censors. Still, the sound of this cry of hope is unforgettable, and there is little doubt that it was heard by the Master himself"

**********
Zog Nit Keynmol Hymn of the Jewish Partisans

Never say that this is the end of the road.
Wherever a drop of our blood fell, there our courage will
grow anew.
This song, written in blood, was sung by a people fighting
for life and freedom.
Our triumph will come and our resounding footsteps will
proclaim "We are here!"

From land of palm-trees to the far-off land of snow.
We shall be coming with our torment, with our woe;
And everywhere our blood has sunk into the earth
Shall our bravery, or vigor blossom forth.

We'll have the morning sun to set our day aglow;
Our evil yesterdays shall vanish with the foe.
But if the time is long before the sun appears,
then let this song go like a signal through the years.

This song was written with our blood, and not with lead;
It's not a song that summer birds sing overhead;
It was a people, amidst burning barricades,
That sang this song of ours with pistols and grenades.

The rising voice of Paul Robeson

“All that Paul Robeson stood for had enormous impact on American and global history. The combination of his art, intellect and humanity was rarely paralleled. The cruelties visited upon him by the power of the State stands as a great blemish on the pages of American history.”
Harry Belafonte

"..while Robeson’s reputation and name recognition will gradually grow, he will remain a marginal figure, greatly admired by the relatively few Americans who understand his giant accomplishments and his remarkable courage, but otherwise eclipsed by one of the ugliest episodes in our country’s history, one of the lasting legacies of McCarthyism and the Cold War'
Peter Dreier

We are witnessing a growing recognition of the remarkable life and achievements of Paul Robeson, who is unquestionably one of the towering figures of the twentieth century.

There are few people whose achievements can match those of Paul Robeson.

In an article in the Los Angeles Review of Books titled, We are long overdue for a Paul Robeson revival, Peter Dreier writes that Paul Robeson was the most talented man of the twentieth century.

Dreier writes:

He was an internationally renowned concert and opera singer, film star and stage actor, college football star and professional athlete, writer, linguist (he sang in 25 languages), scholar, orator, lawyer, and activist in the civil rights, labor, and peace movements. In the 1930s and 1940s, Robeson was one of the best-known, and most admired, Americans in the world. Today, however, he is almost a forgotten figure. Few Americans know his name or accomplishments.

We are familiar with authoritarian governments that seek to “erase” the memory of prominent critics, but how can it happen in a democracy like the United States? Starting in the late 1940s, as the Cold War escalated, America’s political establishment began an assault on Robeson’s career and reputation because of his political activism and outspoken radicalism. He was blacklisted, his concerts and recording contracts canceled, and his passport revoked. By the mid-1950s, he had become a marginal figure — emotionally depressed, physically exhausted, and politically isolated.

As Dreier points out, other public figures who challenged the status quo retained their reputation, but not Robeson. Dreier writes:

He is, at best, a footnote in history textbooks, little known outside a small circle of Americans with a special interest in the history of the civil rights and left-wing movements, although somewhat better known among African Americans than white Americans.

But as Dreire and others have noted, Robeson's outstanding achievements are at last being recognized. 

A range of factors are at work;

• the death of his son Paul Robeson jr who had spent his life promoting and protecting his father's reputation has focused greater attention on Robeson.
• growing interest in and recognition of Robeson's achievements and legacy, including artistic events, public forums and press and media reports (here here, here, here, here).
• the publication of Jordan Goodman's new book "Paul Robeson A Watched Man", which tells of his political awakening and political engagement and his relentless persecution by the US Government.
• the publication of "Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, Barbara Ransby's biography of Eslanda Robeson, Paul Robeson's wife.

Here in Australia Robeson is remembered for his famous 1960 visit, which is the subject of recent historical investigation (described in this article by Ann Curthoys and this piece in The Australian), recent ABC Radio programs (here) and his famous concert on the building site of the Sydney Opera House, which at the time was under construction. 

Paul Robeson and the crimes of the US Government against African Americans

"As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this."  Paul Robeson (1898 –  1976) 

Paul Robeson is one of my heroes.  And I find this photo of the great man profoundly moving.

This photo was taken in 1951, around the time Robeson was blacklisted by the US Government, who had taken away his passport and issued stop notices at all ports to prevent him leaving the US. 

The US Government was outraged by his political advocacy for civil rights for African Americans and his frequent advocacy for the independence of colonial peoples around the globe.

The US Government believed that by isolating him inside US borders they could limit his freedom of expression and his political campaigning. Robeson was told by the US State Department that he was denied a passport because  "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries".

This photo of Robeson was taken when he presented a petition titled “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People” to a UN official.

The document was written by William Patterson, an African American lawyer and Communist, who was Secretary of the Civil Rights Congress. 

The document charged the U.S. with genocide against Black Americans and cited evidence of genocide by the US Government (defined as acts committed with "intent to destroy" a group, "in whole or in part"). The document argued that the US Government is complicit with and responsible for creating genocidal situations, including instances of lynching, legal discrimination, and systematic inequalities in health and quality of life. It argued that the US government is both complicit with and responsible for genocidal situations.

The document included hundreds of cases of lynching, which showed a clear pattern of government inaction or actual complicity. It charged that in the 85 years since the end of slavery more than 10,000 Blacks are known to have been lynched (an average of more than 100 per year), and that the full number can never be known because the murders are often unreported.

The American government and white press accused Robeson and Patterson and the Civil Rights Congress  of advancing the cause of Communism by exaggerating racial conflict and inequality. The US State Department forced Patterson to surrender his passport after presenting the petition to a UN meeting in Paris.

More detail about the document We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People” and Robeson's involvement in its development is here.

Remembering Paul Robeson

Last Tuesday (April 9th) was Paul Robeson's birthday. Robeson was born in 1898 and died in 1975, aged 77.

There is a nice piece here about the restoration and re-dedication of a huge mural of Robeson in Philadelphia.

The Mural Arts Program today rededicated a mural of Paul Robeson on his 115th birthday, while students from Robeson High School in West Philadelphia celebrated a victory inspired by the civil rights leader.
 
At nearly four stories tall, the mural of Robeson faces west on Chestnut Street near 45th, just across the street from the high school that bears his name.

Born in 1898 in Princeton, NJ, the scholar, activist, athlete, and entertainer was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, and died in seclusion in Philadelphia, at age 77.

“He had the nerve to try to get out and stop lynchings during the Truman administration,” notes Frances Aulston, who runs the Paul Robeson House at 50th and Chestnut Streets.   “He walked around the White House saying, ‘This isn’t supposed to happen,’ and tried to put a stop to it.”

“He fought against poll taxes that were common during that time, and worked hard to make sure people had the right to vote,” Aulston says.  “But because he had the courage and conviction to speak out, he was persecuted greatly in this country.”

“When we saw this mural starting to fade, we knew we had to fix it,” says Jane Golden, executive director of the Mural Arts Program. “Because he meant so much to the world, we knew his image shouldn’t fade. By redoing this mural, by preserving it, it lives on for another 20 years as a beacon of inspiration.”

“He’s always an individual that influences me in my life,” said Totiana Myers, a sophomore at Robeson High.

Last December, the Philadelphia School District recommended that the school be closed. Myers battled on the front lines, along with the rest of the school’s 200-plus students, and last month the SRC announced that Robeson would be spared.

“We fought hard and our fighting wasn’t in vain,” says Myers. And, she notes, Robeson stands tall, looking down on West Philadelphia, almost as a guard, smiling down.“I think this was the best birthday present we could have given him,” she says, looking up at the mural.

For more info on the Paul Robeson mural or the Paul Robeson House, go to muralarts.org and paulrobesonhouse.org.

Paul Robeson and Rebel Music

"The powers that be, bent on inculcating narrow-gauged formulas about the necessities of human nature and human society- on the acceptance of which the continuation of their hegemony depends- must always vilify those purveying a more sanguine message."

Martin Duberman, writing about Paul Robeson

This piece by Norman Finklestein on the music of Paul Robeson appeared in the series Rebel Music in the New Left web site.

Like Finklestein Paul Robeson is a huge inspiration for me (previous blog pieces are here)

Finklestein who is a controversial scholar, writer and activist on the Israel-Palestine conflict who has suffered for his political stance, writes of the ways that Robeson's music inspired his political engagement and nourished him during his political struggles.

Finklestein's piece is reproduced below:

In the 1960s everyone was listening to rock and psychedelic music. I sat at home, alone, listening to Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, the Weavers.

In the early 1970s I discovered Paul Robeson. He exerted a huge influence on me in my youth.
Most people nowadays have never heard of Robeson. He was an African-American renaissance man: extraordinary athlete, scholar, linguist, actor.

He was also a Communist, committed to the Soviet Union.

During the McCarthy era, he famously said that "I will not retreat one thousandth part of one inch," which became my credo in life.

Ultimately, Robeson's pro-Soviet beliefs destroyed his professional career and, once the truth about Stalinism came out (like many others, he was quite naive), my impression is that it destroyed him internally.

Robeson was best known for his rendering of folk music from around the world, first and foremost, African-American spirituals. Initially I enjoyed listening to Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho and the more lively spirituals, but over time I came to appreciate the slower, drawn out ones. They expressed the deepest yearnings of an oppressed people, with which I could identify. His renderings of Russian and Yiddish melodies also resonated.

It's an era that's past, probably for the better, so no one reading this can possibly understand the sentiments his music awakened in me.

But the music, the person -- the willingness to make sacrifices for an ideal and for a cause (however mistaken) -- moved me in my youth and gave me a sense of purpose, as well as of solace in moments of setback and defeat.



After I was denied tenure I started listening to Robeson again.

"Nobody knows the troubles I've seen,/Nobody knows my sorrows."
"Were you there,/ When they crucified my Lord?"
"Go down Moses,/Way down in Egypt's land,/And let my people go!"
"Some come crippled,/Some come lame,/Some come walking in Jesus name,/Bear the burden,/In the heat of the day."

I still keep a picture of Robeson pinned to the wall above my desk.

Remembering Paul Robeson: Naomi Shihab Nye

Cross That Line
by Naomi Shihab Nye*

Paul Robeson stood
on the nothern border of the USA
and sang into Canada
where a vast audience sat on folding chairs
waiting to hear him.

He sang into Canada.
His voice left the USA
when his body was not allowed
to cross that line.

Remind us again brave friends!
What countries may we sing into?
What lines should we all be crossing?
What songs travel toward us
from far away
to deepen our days?

On May 18 1952 Paul Robeson performed a concert for 25,000 people gathered on both sides of the US/Canadian border (information about the background to the event can be read here). At the time Robeson was denied the right to travel out of the USA because of his political activities and beliefs, specifically his frequent criticism of the treatment of African-Americans, his work in the anti-imperialist movement and his support for communism.

In 1950 Robeson's passport was confiscated and was denied the right to leave the US to perform abroad. The daily surveillance, villification, persecution and harrassment he suffered from the US authorities and those who opposed his political views made it difficult for him to perform in the US. His income plummeted and his career stalled.

For over 8 years Robeson was unable to leave the USA and was under daily and heavy surveillance by the FBI and CIA.

Previous blog posts on Paul Robeson are here.
 
*Naomi Shihab Nye is a US poet  and writer of Palestinian and American heritage who lives in Texas. Her poems have featured on this blog before.

Currently listening to: Paul Robeson and Bob Dylan's version of "No more Auction Block for Me"

The Negro spiritual "No More Auction Block for Me" stands as a powerful reminder of the history of slavery in the USA. The original song was composed by runaway slaves who escaped to Canada in the 1830's and served as a marching song for Negro Union soldiers during the American Civil War. The song juxtaposes the new found freedom of runaway slaves with a lament for those who died in slavery.

Sung by the great African American artist Paul Robeson (version here) the song becomes a defiant collective voice of those who suffered and survived. Robeson, whose grandfather was a slave, bought the song to life in the 1950's when he was at the height of his career. Americans applauded Robeson when he sang these political songs. But when he turned from artist to radical political activist and denounced the American system for its racism, injustice and political demagoguery, Robeson was persecuted, vilified and ultimately had his career and public reputation destroyed by the US government because of his political beliefs.

Bob Dylan recorded the song in 1962 during the sessions for his second album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, however the version was unreleased until 1991 when it appeared on his 3 CD series Bootleg Series I-III. Dylan's version is a remarkable performance by someone who was aged just 22 at the time. He delivers the song with dignity and solidarity. In his book Song and Dance Man III Michael Gray describes Dylan's delivery of the song this way:

"Bob Dylan's moral imagination and sympathy were such that he attains a fiery scrupulousness that never tries cheap rhetorical delivery and never lapses from its concentrated yearning calm."

"No More Auction Block" played a pivotal part in Dylan's musical history. One of his most famous songs "Blowin' in the Wind" was inspired by and draws from the negro spiritual "No More Auction Block".

The song experienced a revival during the 1960's folk movement and civil rights campaigns where it became an anthem sung during concerts, rallies and demonstrations.

No More Auction Block for Me
(traditional)

No more auction block for me
No more, no more
No more auction block for me
Many thousands gone

No more driver's lash for me
No more, no more
No more driver's lash for me
Many thousands gone

No more whip lash for me
No more, no more
No more pint of salt for me
Many thousands gone

No more auction block for me
No more, no more
No more auction block for me
Many thousands gone

Jack Hirschman: Poem for Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

He who was stoned. Not drugged. Stoned
by fascist- thug rocks as he sang
for the people in Peekskill

in a vicious attack that 58 years later
remains the unforgettable
shame of shames of American culture;

whose voice was the ground where
all colors of the rainbow warmed themselves
on the black fire of his affirmations;

who entered our pores, who never separated
a forward pass, a Shakespearean soliloquy
or a worker's song from the revolutionary

transformation of all the world's peoples;
who IS the Old Man River flowing
into countless other voices

singing,when I open my mouth, singing
when you open yours, singing the dream
he rendered palpable, and vast, and deep.

Jack Hirschman is an overtly political poet who has been San Francisco's poet laureate. This poem is from his book of poetry All That's Left.

Paul Robeson- the first concert on the Sydney Opera House 1960

Recently stumbled across this photo of one of my heroes- Paul Robeson- singing on the site of the Sydney Opera House in 1960. Robeson visited the site during construction and sang to the workers.

Paul Robeson

One of the people I admire most is Paul Robeson. Singer, actor, political activist, radical, political leader, civil rights leader. I am currently re reading Martin Duberman's excellent biography of Robeson.

This is the Robeson song that i enjoy the most http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gtJkeXAMt0&feature=related