Paul Leroy Robeson ( April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political activism. Educated at Rutgers College and Columbia University, he was also a star athlete in his youth. His political activities began with his involvement with unemployed workers and anti-imperialist students whom he met in Britain and continued with support for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War and his opposition to fascism. In the United States he also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice campaigns. His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for communism, and his criticism of the United States government and its foreign policies, caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era. ( From Wikipedia)
PAUL ROBESON’S GREAT QUOTES
“We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility.” ― Paul Robeson
“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
“In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African.” ― Paul Robeson
“Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.” ― Paul Robeson
“The patter of their feet as they walk through Jim Crow barriers to attend school is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, and the world rocks beneath their tread.”— Paul Robeson
“My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?”— Paul Robeson
“I’ve learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed… I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own.” ― Paul Robeson
“Through my singing and acting and speaking, I want to make freedom ring. Maybe I can touch people’s hearts better than I can their minds, with the common struggle of the common man.” ― Paul Robeson
“Artists are the gate keepers of truth. We are civilization’s radical voice.” ― Paul Robeson
“To be free . . . to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life–that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands.” ― Paul Robeson
“Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.” ― Paul Robeson
“The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery.” ― Paul Robeson
“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
“The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice.” ― Paul Robeson
“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. It was the first time I felt like a human being.” ― Paul Robeson
“I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler.” ― Paul Robeson
“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
“Through my singing and acting and speaking, I want to make freedom ring. Maybe I can touch people’s hearts better than I can their minds, with the common struggle of the common man.” ― Paul Robeson
“We ask for nothing that is not right, and herein lies the great power of our demand.” ― Paul Robeson
