Paul Robeson: Words Like Freedom

Original Art by Miranda Bergman - Design by Lisa Roth

This documentary was made possible in part by funding from The Puffin Foundation, the LEF Foundation, Jean Anderson & Ugo Pezzi

Paul Robeson: Words Like Freedom is not only the history of Paul Robeson as a freedom fighter but also the history of the fight for freedom in the U.S.  It is Paul Robeson’s voice we hear; it is his spirit that gives voice to the Black struggle.  In the voice, we hear a resolve to be alive with the struggle of resistance. 

Featuring a collection of Robeson’s interviews and speeches, Words Like Freedom includes a little more than eleven minutes of riveting testimony by Robeson to the HUAC, June 12, 1956.
 
The CD also includes an excerpt from Here I Stand, Robeson’s autobiography, written in 1958, in which his concept of the “oneness of people” resonates with the force and the dignity of a commitment to freedom for all suffering injustice and inequality through the system of capitalism.
 
In his autobiography, Robeson talked about his belief in the principles of scientific socialism an his conviction that a “scientific socialism” would represent “an advance to a higher stage of life—that it is a form of society which is economically, socially, culturally, and ethnically superior to a system based upon production for private profit.”

Robeson lectured tirelessly across the country and around the world urging people of color and workers to unite and to organize in order to bring about a radical new world in which people are truly free.  We hear him urge the audience to unite, in the “Harlem Speech: Communists.”  “We must unite.  We must know our strength.”  Black people, Robeson declared, “must be the decisive voice” in the struggle for freedom. “We must shout at the top of our voices” about the injustices committed in the U.S.

In his interview with Elsa Knight Thompson, he called on Black people to be “militant” and at the fore front for freedom because Black Americans “we have a tradition of tremendous consistent speaking out.”

Since the days of slavery and the abolition movement, Blacks have followed the footsteps of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth who did not, along with others enslaved, settle for the lesser brand of slavery.  In his speech to the Progressive Party, “Lesser Evil,” Robeson reminds the audience that those enslaved ancestors “refused to settle for less.”  Certainly now we will not settle for less in our struggle for freedom.  Masses of Americans, Robeson declared, will be inspired by the Blacks and the workers fight and will join the fight, “working on the level of complete equality.”

This was a man who “never separated his work as an artist from my work as a human being.”  “To me, my art is always a weapon.” And indeed, from his beginnings in Princeton, New Jersey in 1898, Words Like Freedom offers Robeson’s own voice exuberant and strong even in the telling of his personal tragedies and harassment by the U.S. government.
  
Words Like Freedom should find its way in the high schools and college classrooms.  We hear the voice of a warrior, a radical voice who did not talk of triangulation! Robeson had convictions and was committed to fighting for the human rights of Black Americans and workers—but all Americans and all of humankind.  We hear the voice of a warrior for freedom and we should not fear this voice.  Teachers and students should embrace Words Like Freedom as a text even while the CD draws us to Robeson’s autobiography and a study of this vital period of resistance.  The struggle against corporate commercialization and militarization is still for us to continue! Let the voice of Paul Robeson guide you to a renewed commitment to unite and organize!

Lenore Jean Daniels, Ph.D
Editorial Board and Columnist, Black Commentator.com  

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A New Audio CD

"I defy any part of this insolent, dominating America, however powerful; to challenge my Americanism; because by word and deed I challenge this vicious system to the death."

With this CD, we introduce you to rare spoken words of the great Paul Robeson, illuminating a side of this amazing man’s personality and politics that has too often been suppressed. Robeson saw it as his responsibility to speak the truth about conditions both domestic and abroad knowing that his fame would allow these messages to be more widely heard. He was also deeply aware of the consequences and faced the official repression against him with dignity and courage.

Embodied in Paul Robeson’s character and contributions is a message for coming generations that is usually whitewashed, even in sympathetic portrayals. At its core, Robeson’s message is one of militant, uncompromising resistance to racism, oppression, and tyranny—a “must keep fighting” spirit, even in the face of repression and the threat of death. On this CD you’ll hear Robeson express this deeply rooted radicalism in great love for his own African-American people, their culture, and their revolutionary contributions, and you’ll hear it articulated in solidarity with poor and oppressed peoples and nations the world over.

“The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.”

In creating this CD, the Freedom Archives offers a unique resource that can be used with history courses and heard by many who may never before heard the passion and eloquence of Robeson’s spoken words. These excerpts were selected by two young producers, Sele Nadel-Hayes and Patricia Hemphill, as those most relevant for their own and future generations. They listened to the large amount of Robeson-related material in the Freedom Archives, much of it gathered by senior producer Emiliano Echeverria including exclusive recordings made available to Emiliano by progressive journalist Sidney Roger and longshore activist Joe Johnson.

Produced by Sele Nadel-Hayes and Patricia Hemphill, with Lincoln Bergman, Emiliano Echeverria, Claude Marks, all from The Freedom Archives, and Bonnie Weiss of the Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee. Sound production, Greg & Camilo Landau, with the music of Babatunde Lea.

Booklet design: From a painting by Miranda Bergman, entitled Keeps On Rollin’ & with the gifted hand and craft of Lisa Roth.

Thanks to Joe Johnson for the historic vision to have recorded the appearances of Paul Robeson in the Bay Area as part of his lifelong civil rights and union activism.

Sidney Roger for his recordings of Robeson and a life of radical journalism.

Thanks to the Puffin Foundation and LEF Foundation for all their support on this project and our friends Jean Anderson & Ugo Pezzi for that final push!

Thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives and to KPFA-FM for the use of portions of a longer interview of Robeson by Elsa Knight Thompson and Harold Winkler, conducted at a time when he was “white-listed” by most other media.

Thanks to KPFA for their role in broadcasting this material.

Walking the Lonely Road: A Review of Paul Robeson's Words Like Freedom
by Ron Jacobs