Paul Robeson
Celebrating An American Heroe.
BBN: This book is such an intimate portrait of a
legend; as his son and biographer, was writing this book easy, or did you
find yourself faced with myriad emotions as memories return?
PR: Because this book is an intimate portrait of a legend, I waited a
long time until I felt I was ready to write it. Even so, I found it to be a
difficult and highly emotional task.
BBN: How does this book contribute to our knowledge
of this legendary figure and of the roles he played?
PR: To those who do not know him, or know of him, I would define Paul
Robeson as a unique individual who, as one of the greatest performing
artists of the twentieth century, left as his legacy the most powerful black
male images of modern times.
BBN: What are your feelings regarding the
condemnation by a segment of the press of your father as a communist; what
would you say to them today?
PR: I have never paid serious attention to that segment of the press
which condemns my father as a communist despite the fact he was never a
member of the Communist Party. This part of the mass media reflects the
traditional racist right-wing view that black resistance to racist
oppression is somehow the result of a communist plot. Although my father was
not a communist, he was convinced that the Soviet Union and communists in
general were the most reliable opponents of Nazism, colonialism and racism.
My attitude remains: "If this be treason, then make the most of it."
BBN: Some people say that you do not resemble your
father in many ways, his activism, etc, how do you react to that?
PR: In a way, I consider it to be a back-handed compliment when people
say I don’t resemble my father in many ways. He was his own man, and he
taught me to be the same way. "Be yourself," he would tell me. "Don’t
imitate anyone else."
BBN: One of the blights of America today is the
warehousing of black men in the penitentiary, how do you think your father
would have reacted to this reality?
PR: When it comes to concern about black males warehoused in prisons, my
father was the first major performing artist to sing concerts in prisons
across the country. He became an inspiring black male role model for
countless imprisoned young black men.
BBN: There is mention of your linkage to the Ibo
tribe of Nigeria, have you explored this further and do you plan any trips
to Nigeria?
PR: My father learned of his ancestral linkage to the Ibo tribe of
Nigeria on the set of the movie Sanders of the River in England in 1934.
Several Ibos hired as extras told him that his speech pattern was that of
the Ibo language, and he later confirmed this through his own research at
the University of London.
BBN: Compared to when you were your father’s aide
and your experiences during the civil rights movement, in your opinion what
is the state of race relations in America today?
PR: Compared to my experiences with my father in the 1940s and 1950s, and
my experiences in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the state of
America’s race relations today is vastly different. In my view, the enormous
progress that occurred in the wake of the successful civil rights struggle
has ground to a halt and been reversed. A woefully inadequate black
middle-class leadership has squandered immense opportunities and greatly
increased black political power by clinging nostalgically to a civil rights
agenda based on middle-class interests. What is now needed is an
equal-opportunity and equitable-share movement based on the interests of the
black working-class and black poor. A new leadership is required
- a leadership based on black elected officials
who can be held directly accountable by their constituencies.
BBN: For the last 27 years of his life, your father
was the most vilified artist in America; do you believe the mindset has
changed today?
PR: For the last 27 years of his life my father was "the most vilified
artist in America" only if one is talking about white America. Black America
never vilified him. That mindset is changing today, now that black America
is in the process of claiming him as one of its heroes.
Paul Robeson, Jr., is a freelance journalist and translator of Russian
history. |