PAUL ROBESON: “HERE I STAND”
Editors Choice“I came to see the roots of my own people’s culture, especially in our music which is still the richest and most healthy in America.”
Athlete. Actor. Activist. Ambassador for freedom.
Paul Robeson’s voice sang to the very soul of America. And to its conscience.
The truths he spoke deemed him subversive and in 1950 his passport was revoked. Blacklisted, no longer free to travel, or to speak, or to earn, Robeson published Here I Stand, his autobiographical manifesto at the dawn of the Civil Rights movement. Not a single mainstream newspaper would dare to review it.
Robeson’s words resound still, now set to music by Carlos Simon and Dan Harder. He holds our story in his voice. Hear it be moved to act.
“Racism, backed by the power and technology of a modern industrial state, is a monster that must never be unleashed again.”
THIS FRIDAY (February 16) at 8:00pm, the Oakland Symphony performs the world premiere of “Here I Stand: Paul Robeson.” The performance is at The Paramount (2025 Broadway, Oakland).
Tickets start at just $25. Slipped Disc readers can enjoy a 15% discount on all other priced tickets with this promotional code: DISC021624.
HERE I STAND
OAKLAND SYMPHONY
Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Morris Robinson, bass
Oakland Symphony Chorus
JOAN TOWER: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 6
CARLOS SIMON WITH LIBRETTO BY DAN HARDER:
Here I Stand: Paul Robeson
(World Premiere Oakland Symphony Commission, generously funded by the Robeson Centennial Committee)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 5
A great man.
A Stalinist “ambassador for freedom.” Sure.
I’ll take Stalin over Hitler anytime, PS.
Stalin was a coward who never defined his enemy and killed tens of millions of people. Nothing to admire there.
Paul Robeson was accepted in the Soviet Union in the same way Josephine Baker was accepted in France, which is to say as a full and free human being, which is more than they were in their own country.
The Stalinism he saw was not the Stalinism felt by the victims of the Holodomor, let alone of the purges. He was an honoured visitor, exposed rather to the culture of a county rich in it.
It’s the reason why, when he chose to stop performing European music, he excepted only the Soviet Union, because, inexplicably, he viewed its composers as “Asiatic”.
When I was growing up (well after Paul Robeson) I was taught that the Soviet Union was in both Europe AND Asia, with the demarcation line being approximately at the Urals. The vast majority f the land mass is in Asia, but the European part is more populated.
A great new biography of Josephine Baker’s many contributions to the Allied war effort:
“Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy” by Damian Lewis
He was an immensely talented man – that can’t be disputed. Nor, to its shame, that the United States government violated one his core Constitutional rights – that of freedom of speech.
There is an irony here, based on some views expressed by commentors regarding the current war in Ukraine. Robeson spoke effusively about Stalin upon his death. Even before, he praised the Soviet Union and the communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Yet many on this board call for boycotting artists who have praised Russia and its current leader.
For those who have never seen it, Robeson’s performance of Old Man River, combined with James Whale’s impressionistic cinematography in the 1936 movie version of Showboat is stunning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df4VdyGIqJ8
Stunning. I can’t stand musicals — could not even sit through the new West Side Story, or the original, which I loved as a kid — but Showboat is one I could buy the album of just because the songs are so good. And this is the best of a stellar lot.
‘Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders’. you can buy socks with that inscription in the Wartburg. Similar values.
Robeson’s “Old Man River” recording may have influenced me every bit as much as any instrumental great. It’s great to see some of his legacy endure.
My family lived in Mohegan Colony where Robeson fled to during the Peekskill riot. Like Robeson my parents were blacklisted and were targeted unjustly by HUAC and the F.B.I. Robeson’s support of Stalin must be considered in light of the racism he endured.
Yes — in light of the racism he endured, and the Potemkin displays he was shown in the USSR, displays that fooled many visitors, including such as G.B. Shaw.
A great many people fought against racism and for civil rights without being lickspittles for Stalin.
The HUAC should not have targeted Robeson, not because he was a Great Man, but because even lickspittles for Stalin have rights that should not be abridged.
As for being blacklisted by non-government entities, I’d be more apologetic if today’s Left wasn’t hell-bent on silencing and impoverishing anyone with whom they disagree.
As a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1964-65 I was certainly no supporter of Stalin. I doubt you can find anyone on the Left today who is a Stalinist. On the other hand, I doubt you’ll find anyone on the American Right who even knows who he was. History is not a strong suit for Fox-viewers.
Agreed, just look at Tucker Carlson…………
And how about the proposed RNC leader Lara Trump, whose knowledge of History is so thorough, she stated that “taking in Syrian refugees was the worst thing that ever happened to Germany.”
Many of his speeches are available in YouTube, including his encouragement of artists to use their celebrity to be change-makers.
Listen here to his own HUAC testimony, which begins with him clarifying his stance vis-a-vis the Communist party, of which he was not a member:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VhnCrHZkgNk&pp=ygUTcGF1bCByb2Jlc29uIHNwZWVjaA%3D%3D