Paul Robeson (151 page)

7
. Multiple interviews with Helen Rosen; PR, “Here's My Story,”
Freedom
, May 1951 (applauding China's new government).

8
.
National Guardian
, March 22, 1950; New York
Journal-American
, March 13, 1950; David M. Oshinsky,
A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
(The Free Press, 1983), pp. 100–106; J. Fred MacDonald,
Blacks and White TV: Afro Americans in Television Since 1948
(Nelson-Hall, 1983), pp. 50–57.

9
. Press releases from the Associated Negro Press, March 20, 22, 1950, CHS:
Barnett;
Daily Worker
, March 21, 1950 (PR on Roosevelt); the “private citizen” was Mrs. Ethel Hykin, who kindly sent me a copy of Mrs. Roosevelt's reply to her, dated March 27, 1950.

10
.
Daily Worker
, March 17, 1950 (PR statement); FBI Main 100-12304–190 (Mrs. Roosevelt);
The Afro-American
, March 25, 1950; J. Fred MacDonald,
Black and White TV
, pp. 54–55; New York
Amsterdam News
, March 18, 1950 (Smith); Louise T. Patterson to William H. Gray, Jr. (editor-manager, Philadelphia
Afro-American
), March 29, 1950; Carl Murphy to PR, May 8, 1950; ER to Murphy, May 14, 1950 (Honor Roll), RA; statement by C. B. Baldwin, Progressive Party, March 13, 1950, NYPL/Schm: PR; memo from Henry Lee Moon to Wilkins, March 23, 1950, LC: NAACP; New York
Telegram-Sun
, March 1950. The following year a Conference on Equal Rights for Negroes (in which PR participated) spelled out some additional statistics on discrimination: the largest movie union, IATSE, had no black members; only thirty-six of the twenty thousand persons employed in advertising were blacks, and most of them held menial jobs; almost no blacks were employed in the symphonic-music field, in the editorial or business departments of the large newspapers, or in the production or technical side of television and radio (
Daily Worker
, Nov. 14, 1951).

11
. Some of the letters containing invitations are in RA, others in NYPL/Schm: PR; I will not attempt to cite them individually. The following newspaper accounts detail Robeson's various speeches and appearances:
Daily Worker
, March 17, 23, May 2, 18, 24, 25, 1950;
Morning Freiheit
, April 15, May 22, 1950; San Francisco
Chronicle
, May 16, 1950; also, Charlotta A. Bass to PR, March 31, 1950, NYPL/Schm: PR. Special-agent reports to the FBI contain additional details: FBI Main 100-12304-193, 195, 196, 198; FBI New York 100-25857-1043, 1075 (describing PR's appearance at the funeral of Moranda Smith, leader of the tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, N.C., who had died in her mid-thirties of a cerebral hemorrhage).

12
. PR, Jr. (multiple conversations), is the source for PR's distrust of ER's speaking for him. The details of ER's national speaking tour are documented in a diary she kept during 1950 (RA) and in an exchange of letters with Louise Thompson Patterson (as well as between Patterson and some of Essie's hosts), which are also in RA. The FBI St. Louis report is in FBI Main 100-12304-188, the reference to the Security Card in FBI New York 100-25857-1151. The typed mss. of ER's speeches, including “Communism” and “Women and Progressive America,” are in RA. The description of the black ministers in Detroit is from ER to Charles Howard and George Murphy, March 10, 1950, NYPL/Schm: PR (in which she also denounces Herbert Hill). On Muriel Draper's death in 1952, Essie was elected national co-chair (along with Virginia Epstein) of the Women's Division of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, and Jessica Smith was elected vice-chair, a position Freda Diamond had already held (Richard Morford to Patterson, Dec. 9, 1952, NYPL/Schm: CRC).

13
.
Daily World
, June 2, 1950;
Daily Worker
, June 6, 1950; Shaw to PR, June 13, 1950, RA. At the conference Robeson joined the majority in voting against the readmission of delegates from Yugoslavia, telling the press that “Yugoslavia has tied itself firmly to the capitalist camp.…” (
Time
, June 12, 1950).

14
. Interviews with Chatman Wailes, July 1, 1986, and Ishmael Flory, July 1–2, 1986; Seton,
Robeson
, pp. 225–27; the typescript of Robeson's speech is in RA. The Harlem Trade Union Council published Robeson's speech, under the title
Forge Negro-Labor Unity for Peace and Jobs
, as a pamphlet in August 1950. Annette Rubinstein has contrasted Robeson's attitude when traveling in behalf of left-wing causes in 1949–50 with that of some of the prima donnas in the progressive movement. One well-known writer threw a scene when told he would only have a berth rather than a private room during a scheduled train trip. By contrast, Paul—whose large bulk really did require something more than a berth—said that money for a roomette for him was better spent on organizational work (interview, Dec. 5, 1983).

15
.
The issues involved in the Korean War have divided scholars for decades. The two most recent accounts, less polemical than much of the preceding scholarship, are: James Irving Matray,
The Reluctant Crusade: American Foreign Policy in Korea, 1941–1950
(University of Hawaii Press, 1985), and Rosemary Foot,
The Wrong War: American Policy and the Dimensions of the Korean Conflict, 1950–1953
(Cornell University Press, 1985).

16
. The typescript of Robeson's June 28, 1950, speech in Madison Square Garden is in RA.

17
. FBI Main 100-12304-204; FBI New York 100-25857-1107, 1109, 1111. Revels Cayton had been urging Robeson to show himself more in Harlem, and in Aug. 1950 Louise Patterson found a one-room apartment for Paul at 270 Saint Nicholas Avenue. Essie sent down some furniture for it from Enfield. He shifted residences back and forth, sometimes staying with the Rosens or the McGhees, often taking meals at Lee and Revels Cayton's apartment. Lee Cayton recalls that he was “very sensitive to the fact that we had limited funds” and insisted on giving her money each week for food (Patterson to Rockmore, Aug. 10, 1950; ER to Rockmore, Aug. 8, 1950, RA; interview with Lee Cayton, April 1982). Freda Diamond has stressed to me that Robeson
always
had a second place to retreat to. For the thirties in London, see note 5, p. 666. For the forties, Ted Rolfs has confirmed one hideaway on Saint Nicholas Avenue, to which Robeson gave him a key (Garber interview, Feb. 4, 1983, plus my follow-up phone interview, Feb. 17, 1987; Rolfs had known Robeson for about ten years—see note 47, p. 646, and note 19, p. 710); and the FBI claimed to have uncovered another “hide-out” (as they put it) on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village (FBI New York 100-25857-7871, Sept. 16, 1949).

18
. Warren Hall Saltzman, “Passport Refusals for Political Reasons: Constitutional Issues in Judicial Review,”
Yale Law Journal
, Feb. 1952, for the historical dimensions of the dispute.

19
. FBI Main 100-12304-204; FBI New York 100-25857-1107, 1109, 1111; Witt to Acheson, Aug. 1, 1950; Shipley to Witt, Aug. 7, 1950; Witt to Shipley, Aug. 11, 1950; Willis H. Young (acting passport chief) to Witt, Aug. 17, 1950—all in RA. Prior to the State Department action, the American Consul General in Trinidad had reported that the acting governor of the island requested advance notice of PR's rumored intention to make speeches in Trinidad “in support of leftist candidates,” with an eye to trying to prevent such activity; it was also reported that “The British Security Forces in the Caribbean Area are obviously not anxious to have Robeson visit British possessions because of his Communistic activities” (FBI Main 100-12304-? [illegible], March 22, 1950, 201, 214 [British]). According to the FBI, Witt had briefly been a member of the CPUSA in the mid-thirties (FBI Main 100-12304-255).

20
. The unnumbered State Department “Memorandum for File,” released under the FOIA, contains a firsthand account of the meeting; the version in the
Daily Worker
, Aug. 25, 1950, closely parallels the official memo; Patterson to Clyde Jackman, Jan. 31, 1951, NYPL/Schm: CRC. The three other lawyers attending PR were Judge James A. Cobb, Dean George A. Parker of the Terrill Law School, and George E. C. Hayes, a former member of the Washington, D.C., Board of Education and a Howard University trustee. The prestigious law firm of Cobb, Hayes and Howard (Perry Howard, GOP national committeeman from Mississippi) representing PR had been in existence for two decades and had a conservative reputation; it clearly felt uneasy about PR's political radicalism (Pittsburgh
Courier
, April 28, 1951, in which Judge Cobb stresses his rock-ribbed Republican credentials and resents the suggestion of “pinkish leanings”)—which may be why PR soon shifted to another firm. ER's comment is in an “open letter” she sent to the House Lobby Investigation Committee, Aug. 10, 1950, NYPL/Schm: CRC. She sent a copy of the letter to Vito Marcantonio, who replied, “I fully agree with you” (Marcantonio to ER, Aug. 19, 1950, NYPL: Marcantonio). In a speech on Oct. 24, 1950 (text in RA), PR made a critical reference to William Dawson, the black Representative from Chicago,
in regard to the Patterson episode: he “might have spoken, but he chose to keep quiet—possibly because Mr. Lanham of Georgia is a member of his Committee on Executive Expenditures, a little plum which Mr. Dawson received for years of faithful service to the corrupt machine bosses of Chicago and Washington.” Oppositely, PR praised Marcantonio for having spoken out against Lanham's attack on Patterson: “Marcantonio did not choose to remain silent. His voice resounded in the halls of Congress in defense of the Negro people as he has done so many times in the past.…” Marcantonio was defeated in his bid to be returned to Congress in 1950.

21
.
Daily Worker
, Aug. 9, Sept. 4, 8, 11, 1950; California
Eagle
, Aug. 11, Sept. 14, 1950;
Daily People's World
(West Coast CP paper), Aug. 9, 1950;
Daily Compass
, Aug. 10, 1950; sample protests from abroad are John Takman to PR, Aug. 19, 1950, and J. Chore to Du Bois, Sept. 7, 1950—both in RA; statement on Madison Square Garden issued by Hunton (CAA), Aug. 31, 1950, RA; FBI New York 100-25857-1148 (Garden).

22
. The typescript of PR's Harlem speech is in RA. The Harlem Trade Union Council had held its first convention in June 1950, opening with a concert by PR. The Council before that had been a body of delegates from various unions; after the convention it became a delegate-and-membership body. The National Negro Labor Council consisted of delegates from ten black labor councils throughout the nation, the New York City unit being the Harlem Trade Union Council, which in July 1951 changed its name to the Greater New York Negro Labor Council (
Daily Worker
, June 3, 1950, May 18, June 4, 1951. For more on NNLC, see note 47, p. 714). In all its manifestations, the FBI labeled it “A Communist Party front organization” (FBI Main 100-12304-255).

23
. According to a Naval Intelligence report, at the Hands Off Korea rally on July 3 Robeson “blistered the United States” (FBI New York 100-25857-1800); interview with Annette Rubinstein, Dec. 5, 1983. Not even in Harlem were all Robeson's streetcorner rallies well attended; if
Collier's
(Oct. 28, 1950) can be believed, one rally for “peace, freedom and jobs” drew a mere two hundred.

24
. CVV to Donald Angus, July 20, 1950, in Kellner, ed.,
Letters CVV
, p. 242. In this same period CVV gave a party for Edith Sampson, the black UN delegate who was generally viewed on the left as an apologist for the U.S. State Department (CVV to Brion Gysin, Dec. 16, 1950, in Kellner, ed.,
Letters CVV
, p. 244). Ruark's syndicated column is dated Oct. 3, 1950. Pittsburgh
Courier
, Aug. 19, 1950 (Cayton).

25
. Boston
Traveler
, Aug. 12, 1950 (Moscow); the Soviet play
John
—
Soldier of Peace
was written by Yuri Krotkov, starred the distinguished Soviet actor M. Nazvanov, and played more than a hundred times (Nazvanov to PR, March 8, 1952, RA). Pittsburgh
Courier
, Sept. 9, 1950 (Josh White); Navasky,
Naming Names
, pp. 192–93 (Belafonte); interview with Revels Cayton, April 27, 1982;
Rolling Stone
, March 1976 (Gillespie); phone interview with Sidney Poitier, Oct. 20, 1986. Pete Seeger confirms that Josh White told Robeson about his HUAC appearance in advance, and also Robeson's lack of bitterness over it—but has it happening over the phone rather than in person (interview with Seeger, July 4, 1986). When Seton was preparing her book on PR, he asked her “to cut down on quotes of fellow Black Americans who testified against him, because, as he said, he understood the predicament of the pressures they were put under ‘to clean [sic] their skirts.' There was a total absence of mean or vindictive mindedness in Paul” (Seton to Geoffrey Baines, Nov. 30, 1978, courtesy of Seton).

26
.
Christian Science Monitor
, Oct. 11, 1950; Boston
Post
, Oct. 6, 11, 12 (editorial), 14, 1950; Boston
Herald
, Oct. 11, 12, 1950; Associated Negro Press releases, Nov. 6, 18, 1959, CHS: Barnett; Washington
Star
, Nov. 8, 1950 (Soviet party); New York
Amsterdam News
, Nov. 18, 1950;
Life
, Nov. 20, 1950. Reports on the Second World Peace Conference are in New York
Herald Tribune
, Nov. 17, 23, 1950;
Daily Worker
, Nov. 10, 20, 24, 1950;
Morning Freiheit
, Nov. 18, 1950. When Dorothy Bushnell Cole returned from the
peace conference, a special FBI agent, “through the cooperation of the U.S. Customs Inspector,” photographed material in her baggage relating to the conference (FBI New York 100-25857-1800, Referral Doc. #3 from U.S. Customs, Department of Treasury, to FBI). When the International Peace Prize was presented to PR at a rally on Dec. 11, 1950, Army Intelligence was present and reported that Robeson once again spoke out against the U.S. presence in Korea (FBI New York 100-25857-1800, Referral Doc. #21 from G-2 to FBI). The State Department also monitored the activities of PR, Jr., who had by then become active in the Labor Youth League (PR, Sr., had. addressed its founding convention at Stuyvesant Casino on Nov. 24, 1950; the typescript of PR's address is in RA). In December, PR, Jr., was part of a group of two hundred young people who staged a peace demonstration in the main lobby of the UN headquarters; they cheered Mrs. Roosevelt when she walked through the lobby, but after she remonstrated with them, the cheers turned to boos (ANP release, Dec. 6, 1950, CHS: Barnett).