Paul Robeson Quotes (42 Quotes)


    But the deep desire for peace remained with the American people.

    I know that if the peace movement takes its message boldly to the Negro people a powerful force can be secured in pursuit of the greatest goal of all mankind. And the same is true of labor and the great democratic sections of our population.

    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.

    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.

    The Korean war has always been an unpopular war among the American people.


    My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave.

    The other reason that I am here today, again from the State Department and from the court record of the court of appeals, is that when I am abroad I speak out against the injustices against the Negro people of this land.

    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.

    This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen.

    Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples' democracies.

    At one point American peace sentiment helped to stop Truman from pursuing use of the atom bomb in Korea and helped force the recall of MacArthur.

    And, gentlemen, they have not yet done so, and it is quite clear that no Americans, no people in the world probably, are going to war with the Soviet Union.

    I feel closer to my country than ever. There is no longer a feeling of lonesome isolation. Instead--peace. I return without fearing prejudice that once bothered me . . . for I know that people practice cruel bigotry in their ignorance, not maliciously

    This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America.

    Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence.

    And at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists.

    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.

    At every step the vast majority have expressed horror at the idea of an aggressive war.

    As Americans, preserving the best of our traditions, we have the right- nay the duty-to fight for participation in the forward march of humanity.

    What do you mean by the Communist Party As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

    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.

    Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near.

    For many years I have so labored and I can say modestly that my name is very much honored all over Africa, in my struggles for their independence.

    In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea to be African.

    We ask for nothing that is not right, and herein lies the great power of our demand.

    Once we are joined together in the fight for peace we will have to talk to each other and tell the truth about each other. How else can peace be won

    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.

    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.

    I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States.

    Like any other people, like fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in every land, when the issue of peace or war has been put squarely to the American people, they have registered for peace.

    Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports, the arts, the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people, labor's rights and the fight for peace.

    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.

    My name is Paul Robeson, and anything I have to say, or stand for, I have said in public all over the world, and that is why I am here today.

    You know I am an actor, and I have medals for diction.

    Yes, I heard my people singing--in the glow of parlor coal-stove and on summer porches sweet with lilac air, from choir loft and Sunday morning pews--and my soul was filled with their harmonies. Then, too, I heard these songs in the very sermons of my father, for in the Negro's speech there is much of the phrasing and rhythms of folk-song. The great, soaring gospels we love are merely sermons that are sung and as we thrill to such gifted gospel singers as Mahalia Jackson, we hear the rhythmic eloquence of our preachers, so many of whom, like my father, are masters of poetic speech.

    And today the Negro people watch Africa and Asia and closely follow the liberation struggles of the rising peoples in these lands.

    The telling of these truths is an important part of our work in building a strong and broad peace movement in the United States.

    I did a long concert tour in England and Denmark and Sweden, and I also sang for the Soviet people, one of the finest musical audiences in the world.

    In fact, because of this deep desire for peace, the ruling class leaders of this land, from 1945 on, stepped up the hysteria and propaganda to drive into American minds the false notion that danger threatened them from the East.

    Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III.

    We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility.

    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.


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