Without doubt, Paul Robeson ranks as one of the most talented men that the United States has ever seen. His combination of intelligence, athletic skill, and singing and acting talent know few equals. Yet, I’ll venture to write that you’ve scarcely heard of him. In contrast, Jackie Robinson is forever famous. Yet, the stories of Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson are entwined.
Robinson‘s legacy requires no introduction for sports fans. He earned great fame, and deservedly so, for breaking down professional baseball’s color barrier in 1947. In time, he entered the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The status of his baseball legacy is so great that no major league player will ever wear Robinson’s number forty-two again.
These two men have much in common. Both were superb athletes, articulate speakers, and fought hard for civil rights and decent treatment for African Americas in the United States at a time when decent treatment could be hard to come by. Why, then, does the world know Jackie Robinson so well but Paul Robeson hardly at all?
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How Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson Came Together
The answer, I believe, lies in their ending up on opposite sides of an issue of great political importance in the mid-20th century: Anti-communism. During the 1950s, most Americans lived in great fear of the “communist menace.” By that decade the Soviet Union (USSR), so recently the ally of the US against Nazi Germany during World War 2, was once again an evil menace seeking world domination. Americans responded with all manner of fear, suspicion, and hostility toward anyone deemed sympathetic to communism. President Harry Truman established a loyalty commission in the US government. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) existed to investigate anyone showing the slightest hint of disloyalty. And so on.
Enter Paul Robeson. He was, by any measure, an extraordinary individual. He attended Rutgers University and ranked first in his class. At the same time, he earned 12 letters in sports, making the All-America team in football in 1918 and 1919. Later, he played football professionally. After that ended, Robeson earned a law degree from Columbia, although racism prevented him from practicing much law. Undeterred, he became a renowned actor of Shakespearean drama while performing in movies as well. One film, titled All God’s Chillun Got Wings, earned him stacks of hate mail because he married a white woman in the film. To top everything off, Robeson earned worldwide acclaim for his singing, specializing in spirituals.
How Robeson Gets in Trouble
How could such a man become a pariah in a nation like the US that claims to celebrate talented individuals? Paul Robeson’s problems began when, after visiting the USSR in the 1930s, he said, “I would say in Russia I felt for the first time a full human being, and no colored prejudice like in Mississippi and no colored prejudice like in Washington and it was the first time I felt like a human being.” Although unpopular, during World War 2 people could overlook such a statement. As late as 1943, Robeson attended a meeting with baseball’s commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Landis praised him by stating, “You all know that he is a great man in public life, a great American.”
All that changed by 1949. In that year, Robeson stated, “It is unthinkable that American Negroes would go to war on behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations against the Soviet Union which in one generation has raised our people to full human dignity.” The die was cast, and it wasn’t long before HUAC hauled Robeson in to testify for his “un-American” beliefs.
Robinson’s Career
Meanwhile, Jackie Robinson was busy revolutionizing baseball. Because of his color, but also by revitalizing the game with his speed and aggressive style of play. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers become perennial World Series contenders, especially when the Dodgers added other African American stars like Roy Campanella to bolster their ranks. Robinson won Rookie of the Year in 1947, was the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1949, and went to the All-Star Game six years in a row.
Therefore, when HUAC called Paul Robeson to defend himself in 1956, it also called on Robinson to testify against him. It’s hard to imagine today how difficult a position Robinson found himself in. He believed in the United States and its values. Yet he knew of Paul Robeson’s career and how
Robeson believed in the cause of civil rights just as much as he did. Robinson knew what Congress expected, of course. He was supposed to denounce Robeson, and the weight of Robinson’s name would allow Robeson’s critics to claim how Robinson spoke for all “true Americans” in the African American community.
Robinson’s Testimony
However, Robinson surely also knew that if he turned on Robeson too strongly, he’d forfeit some of his respect among black people who knew of Paul Robeson’s career and dedication to the cause of equal rights. A few of Robinson’s remarks show how he tried to toe this line. He said that Robeson should have a “right to his personal views, and if he wants to sound silly when he expresses them in public, that is his business and not mine.” Furthermore, “Negroes were stirred up long before there was a Communist Party and they’ll stay stirred up long after the party has disappeared—unless Jim Crow has disappeared by then as well.”
However, another of his remarks showed less restraint:
“I can’t speak for any 15,000,000 people any more than any other one person can, but I know that I’ve got too much invested for my wife and child and myself in the future of this country, and I and other Americans of many races and faiths have too much invested in our country’s welfare, for any of us to throw it away because of a siren song sung in bass. But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop fighting race discrimination in this country until we’ve got it licked. It means that we’re going to fight it all the harder because our stake in the future is so big. We can win our fight without the Communists and we don’t want their help.”
The Reaction for Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson
Some African American leaders praised Robinson for his performance at the trial while others were upset. One newspaper, the Philadelphia Afro-American, published one angry letter toward Robinson that stated, “Paul Robeson was fighting for his people’s rights when Jackie Robinson was in knee pants.”
For Paul Robeson, the consequences of his HUAC trial were dire. Organizers canceled future singing engagements. Stores stopped selling his records. The All-American team deleted his name. Finally, the FBI harassed him. It was a sad time for a man with so much talent to offer. Showing an incredible amount of class and dignity, when someone asked him about Robinson after the trial, Robeson stated, “I have no quarrel with Jackie. I have a great deal of respect for him. He is entitled to his view. I feel that the House Committee has insulted the entire Negro race.”
I regret to write that Paul Robeson’s story does not have a truly happy ending. America experienced no sudden change of heart in the immediate aftermath of his trial. Robinson, however, moderated his views on Robeson over time. While never veering from his anti-communism, he did show some regret over his performance in 1956. In his autobiography, Robinson wrote, “I have grown wiser and closer to painful truths about America’s destructiveness. And I do have increased respect for Paul Robeson who, over a span of that twenty years, sacrificed himself, his career, and the wealth and comfort he once enjoyed because, I believe, he was sincerely trying to help his people.”
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